THE cabinet will tomorrow discuss the problems plaguing the Pilgrims’ Fund Board, or Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH), and the issuance of its dividends, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“I will answer all the questions after we have discussed and decided on the TH issue,” the prime minister told the Dewan Rakyat during the question-and-answer session this morning.

“The cabinet will discuss TH’s financial position and the fund’s ability to pay dividends to depositors.”

He was replying to a question by Noraini Ahmad (Parit Sulong-BN) on when TH will announce its 2018 dividend payout to 9.3 million depositors.

Pakatan Harapan has detected elements of corruption in the fund since taking over Putrajaya, said Dr Mahathir.

“This has affected TH’s ability to pay dividends. During the Barisan Nasional administration, the fund overpaid for assets.”

TH is expected to announce its 2018 dividends soon, and the rate will be lower than previous years.

For 2017, it announced a rate of 4.5%, and a 1.75% special dividend for depositors yet to perform the haj.

A special audit of TH for the 2017 financial year by PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that the fund had paid dividends using cash from depositors’ savings instead of the profits declared.

The report, which was tabled in Parliament last December, showed that TH had made two deals that made it seem as if the dividends came from the fund’s profits.

Besides the overstated profits, the report also highlighted the overstating of assets’ value, an unbalanced profile of depositors and questionable transactions.

It said TH was sitting on up to RM10.2 billion in losses in equities, and its liabilities outstripped its assets of RM9 billion.

The government has moved some of the assets to a special purpose vehicle to clean up the balance sheet. – April 4, 2019.