.jpg "Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani speaks during an Invest Malaysia 2017 event at the Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, July 25, 2017. u00e2u20acu2022 Picture by Yusof Mat Isa")
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — The government has never appointed any agents to act as middlemen in transferring unclaimed monies to owners, Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said today.
Johari said that it was some owners of the said fund who hired middlemen on their own, adding that the government has no role nor would it interfere in the matter.
“Firstly Indera Mahkota, government never appointed any agent to collect this unclaimed monies on behalf of the owner. Cannot. Even if agents come, they fill the form and send, and when they send it, and say please pay to the agent. Cannot.
“However, what happens is, some owners of the fund, they appoint an agent. They promise the agent — If I get to collect back my money, I will give 20 per cent,” Johari told Indera Mahkota MP Datuk Fauzi Abdul Rahman in Parliament today.
“On that, we can’t do anything. That is the owner’s business.”
Johari added that some owners resorted to such arrangements as they lived too far away and therefore felt too “lazy” to pick up the money, or the amount that they were entitled to was menial.
Fauzi had asked the government to state the mechanism to redeem unclaimed monies for those who have sums to claim.
Earlier, Bernama reported that the government aims to launch the Electronic Government Unclaimed Money Information System (eGUMIS) in the second quarter of next year to make it convenient for the public, especially for those living in rural areas, to check on their unclaimed monies.
Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Othman Aziz reportedly said of 52,015 applications for unclaimed monies so far this year, 34,353 were from those living in the capital.
