UMNO wants to help its mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia out of a financial predicament but its hands are tied after Putrajaya froze its accounts, said party secretary-general Annuar Musa.

He said the party has not washed its hands of the plight of the Malay-language daily.

“If the accounts are unfrozen, there is RM200 million at our disposal. We can help with the workers’ welfare. Now, we are thinking of how to help.

“It is not right to say we have washed our hands of Utusan. Umno is ever ready to help.

“The problems at the paper did not happen over the last two or days, it occurred over some time,” he told reporters today at the party’s headquarters.

The Ketereh MP said the party had assisted Utusan during its time in power.

Despite divesting shares in the paper to its party man Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir, Umno still has 18.1% equity in the company.

In February, it sold 31.6% of its shares to Opulence Asia Sdn Bhd, a company owned by Aziz, making him the biggest shareholder in Utusan Melayu Berhad.

In July, tycoon Syed Mokhtar Albukhary increased his stake in the company to 19.72%, making him the second largest shareholder through his company, Nilam Setar Sdn Bhd.

Utusan has been plunged into a financial crisis since last year and had failed to meet salary payments from June this year.

It is also having difficulty paying 800 staff who had left under a voluntary separation scheme – a move management believed would help the company stay afloat.

Yesterday afternoon, the papers’ staff had picketed over the delay in payment of their salaries.

Annuar today said Umno no longer has a significant amount of shares in Utusan, and is no longer involved in the company’s publications.

“The problems Utusan is facing today stem from business problems, not political problems.”

He said Umno will discuss with the Utusan management ways to help the paper, despite the party’s frozen accounts. – August 20, 2019.