PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli has urged the top brass of Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT) to sue him with their own money instead of using LTAT's funds.
He said LTAT chairperson Mohd Anwar Mohd Nor and LTAT chief executive officer Lodin Wok Kamaruddin should take him to court in their personal capacity.
"It is regretful if they use the contributions of retired army personnel to sue me despite failing to rebut the facts I have put forward," he said in a statement today.
Rafizi said this after Mohd Anwar announced that LTAT had commenced legal action against the Pandan MP for alleging that LTAT was facing financial difficulties and was unable to disburse gratuity payment to retired army personnel on time.
Rafizi had claimed that LTAT's financial difficulties stemmed from 1MDB's failure to pay LTAT's subsidiary Perbadanan Perwira Harta Malaysia RM396.41 million for its services as turnkey contractor.
However, both LTAT and 1MDB have insisted that there were no payments owed between the companies.
Rafizi said he is prepared to face the LTAT pair and would be calling retired army veterans whose gratuity payment were delayed as witnesses.
"I will also take this opportunity to question them about LTAT's involvement with 1MDB, particularly the role of Lodin Wok.
"I am sure the trial will be one that receives global attention," he added.
LTAT had previously challenged Rafizi to provide the names of retired army personnel who have yet to receive their gratuity payment, which the lawmaker accepted and provided 110 names.
LTAT yesterday said 69 of the 110 had received their payments between March 16, 2016 and April 4, 2016.
However, Rafizi said this was an indirect admission that there were indeed delays in disbursing gratuity payments by LTAT.
"The statement confirmed that when I first raised the issue on March 21, a large part, if not all, of the retired army personnel had yet to receive their gratuity payment from LTAT.
"I would also like to know when exactly was the payment made to the 69 retirees who only just received their gratuity payment from LTAT," he added.
Rafizi challenged LTAT to provide specific dates for all the 69 retirees to prove that they were not only paid in the last few days after he complained about the matter.
The PKR leader added that he continued to receive complaints about retired army personnel not receiving payments in full and will be submitting 81 more names to LTAT.
