KUANTAN, May 11 — Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Fuziah Salleh today confirmed that the Malaysian Islamic Economic Development Foundation’s (Yapeim) books have been audited by leading accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

However, she said the decision whether to make the findings public will be left to Yapeim’s board of directors.

“I am not going to comment on how Yapeim funds were utilised by the old government as we have already appointed an audit firm (to go through the books).

“However, under Pakatan Harapan, we are determined (to ensure transparency), I will personally see to this so that all funds are solely meant for the orphans and that Yapeim is run in the most transparent manner,” she said.

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Fuziah, who is Kuantan member of parliament, was speaking to newsmen after officiating the opening of Kembara Rahmah Nur Ramadan 2019 and handing over of aid at the Pak Mahat people’s housing project here, today.

Fuziah was commenting on a news portal report that alleged that some RM1 million from Yapeim funds meant to help orphans were misused in 2017 to pay the legal fees of a lawyer, who also happened to be an aide to former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Najib, however, denied this allegation on his Facebook page.

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Fuziah said the question of legal action being taken to recover the funds allegedly misappropriated will depend on the outcome of Najib’s ongoing trial.

“Let the law takes it place, (and) the audit too has already been done, so I prefer not to comment about things that have happened as this is not only about Yapeim funds.

“There are the Tabung Haji and Felda funds as well. So, the spotlight should not just be on just a single agency as (there are) other funds belonging to the people that have been misused as well,” she said. — Bernama