KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 — Former Tabung Haji (TH) chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Rahim broke the law when he admitted to accepting money from Umno to put into the Muslim pilgrimage fund’s foundation when he was chairman, Datuk Mujahid Yusof Rawa said.
During a live debate held by Sinar Harian tonight, Azeez was answering a question regarding the several police reports against him for bribes and foreign money exchange as well as the police report made by TH management against Azeez for using TH money for his political party’s affairs in 2017.
Azeez said that every year TH would provide zakat, or alms, to the needy but a drop in palm oil and rubber prices in 2017 meant this was hard to do.
That’s when Azeez said he received RM7 million from Umno to be put in Yayasan Tabung Haji to give to the poor during Ramadan.
“That’s the fundamental problem here. My learned friend here is saying he received money from Umno to be put in Yayasan Tabung Haji. He cannot do that.
“I want to let everyone here know that Yayasan cannot take money from political parties and he just admitted that he has taken RM7 million. They are not allowed to take donations so thank you for confirming this,” said Mujahid.
“There are police reports against Azeez for misrepresenting the real financial accounts of TH. This is real and it depends on the current government if they will prosecute him or not.”
Mujahid and Azeez have been going back and forth in Parliament regarding TH’s finances.
Azeez and Umno, especially its Youth chief and former deputy minister in charge of the Haj fund Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, have raised the Tabung Haji issue both inside and outside of Parliament several times.
Among their claims is that TH under Mujahid had sold four of the fund’s hotels to a company, Urusharta Jemaah Sdn Bhd (UJSB), which also led to more than 600 employees losing their jobs in 2019.
Mujahid had in February this year clarified that it was untrue that the buildings were put up for sale, as they were part of TH’s assets transferred to special government vehicle UJSB, under the Finance Ministry.
