KOTA KINABALU – A royal commission of inquiry (RCI) has been sought to investigate the US$1 billion (RM4.18 billion) which has allegedly gone missing from Yayasan Sabah’s coffers.
This was the request made by Warisan secretary-general Datuk Loretto Padua Jr to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and the federal government.
Al-Jazeera, in a special report on Sabah’s controversial Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) dated February 2, had highlighted the matter, claiming the incident occurred between 1986 and 1993.
He said the inquiry is necessary since the international news network had pointed out that a reputable international audit firm, Pricewaterhouse, made the discovery in 1994. Therefore, he added that Sabahans have the right to know what actually happened to that money.
“Was the US$1 billion used by the state government to finance bad investments or projects? If so, then why did Al-Jazeera specifically mention that it went missing?
“And if the article is based on the information of an unreliable source, then why would Al-Jazeera be so brazen as to implicate a reputable international audit firm?” he said in a statement today.
Padua said these are the questions that Sabahans are asking now, especially the younger generation who have never even heard about the issue.
He added that unlike the issue of illegal immigrants in Sabah, these missing funds were hardly mentioned at all or not given the media attention it deserved.
“If the federal government decides to ignore this issue or sweep it under the carpet, then what example is being set for future leaders on matters that involve integrity and responsibility in managing public funds?
“If previous and current leaders have been unreliable, then this same trait of being untrustworthy will continue on to future leaders.
“We must get to the bottom of this before more state revenue goes missing due to corrupt and unreliable leaders like what happened to the US$1 billion from Yayasan Sabah.
“This is more so when Sabahans are currently fighting tooth and nail for 40% of the net revenue derived by the federal government from our state as well as for higher revenue from our oil and gas.
“Many of Sabah’s politicians who once served as the state’s cabinet ministers and chairpersons in GLCs at that material time are still around and this includes the former prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed, who was implicated in the article.
“They can be called upon to give a full account on the issue in the RCI,” he said.
Padua also said that Warisan may need to get peninsula party leaders as well as political allies to assist in pushing for an RCI on Yayasan Sabah’s missing US$1 billion since the issue is a lot more serious than the demand for an RCI on the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal.
“If the nation and some BN leaders wanted an RCI on BMF based on a borrowing of US$292 million made in four tranches between 1979 and 1980, then isn’t an RCI on Yayasan Sabah’s missing US$1 billion of equal importance?
“Since our president, Shafie Apdal was the federal cabinet minister who openly confronted the former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on the 1MDB fiasco that eventually led to the downfall of BN during GE14, Warisan is hoping to get support from our political allies in the peninsula especially Members of Parliament who have become fed up with the widespread corruption and lack of integrity in the country to make this RCI on Yayasan Sabah’s missing funds a reality,” he said. – The Vibes, February 6, 2022
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