A Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) will be better equipped to uncover more information on the foreign exchange trading losses suffered by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) in the 1980s and 1990s, former chief secretary to the government Mohd Sidek Hassan told Bernama today.

Sidek said the special task force (STF) had learnt that “the figure (for the losses) is greater than what was disclosed”.

However, the task force was unable to delve deeper due to “limitations”, he said in an interview with selected media yesterday.

“As a task force, we have limitations. We were established on an administrative basis and not under any legislation. As such, the STF has no powers to coerce anyone to come forward for any discussion or to give information,” he said.

Sidek said the STF had access to only documents that were available to the public, for example, BNM’s annual reports and its consultations with the International Monetary Fund.

Sidek said the task force could not force anyone to come forward to testify.
 
“Even if you ask them to come and they don’t want to come, there is no issue about it. And even if they come and we question them and they refuse to answer, we cannot do anything about it.”

“And it is not under oath. Even if they answer, we don’t know if that is the truth. So, that is why the RCI is better, although it is safe to say that the STF has reason to believe that the actual loss is different and much more than the figures given earlier,” said Sidek.

He said the RCI would have access to documents relating to the foreign exchange losses, such as those from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) or BNM.

On January 26, former BNM assistant governor Abdul Murad Khalid said BNM suffered US$10 billion (RM43 billion) in foreign exchange market losses in the early 1990s, much higher than the figure of RM9 billion disclosed by BNM.

Sidek, who is Petronas chairman, said the STF focused on three reference points,  one of which was conducting preliminary investigations into BNM’s losses related to its speculative foreign currency transactions.

It also investigated whether there was any action to cover up the losses and whether the Cabinet and Parliament were misled.

On June 21, the STF submitted its findings, concluding that it found that a prima facie case existed to merit the establishment of an RCI to conduct in-depth investigations.

Sidek said a dozen people, including former BNM governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, were interviewed by the STF, and all cooperated.

Asked if there were individuals who were called up but did not come forward, he said: “Of those called, not many did not want to come forward. Those who did not turn up had their reasons, like perhaps they had forgotten.”

Among the others who were summoned by the STF were PKR adviser Anwar Ibrahim, DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang as well as former Finance Minister II and BNM assistant governor at the time, Nor Mohamed Yakcop.

Asked on the need to investigate something that happened 20 years  ago, Sidek said the losses might have occurred a long time ago, but the losses were huge.

“I feel that the people need an explanation on the matter, and the government decided to conduct an investigation.

“Therefore, an RCI is the only way for a complete understanding.” – June 24, 2017.