Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Bukit Aman’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) will be conducting the investigations on the foreign exchange losses suffered by Bank Negara in the 1990s as recommended by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) that delved into the matter.
Zahid, who is also home minister, said the RCI into the losses had lodged a police report yesterday asking for investigations to be carried out to unearth whether criminal breach of trust, fraud and cheating had been committed regarding the losses.
“The RCI which does not have enforcement powers recommended that these investigations are necessary.
“They recommended that several personalities named in RCI report be investigated according to the relevant laws,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.
Earlier, Zahid had opened the Karnival Planet Ummah Masjid Utama 2017 programme in Dataran Putra here.
Asked whether the three individuals named in the report would be summoned to give statements, Zahid just replied “as stated by the inspector-general of police”.
Earlier today, IGP Mohamad Fuzi Harun said a special team led by Bukit Aman CCID director Amar Singh Ishar Singh was formed yesterday to investigate the case from all angles and that the individuals named would be called up to give statements if necessary.
The RCI, headed by former chief secretary to the government Mohd Sidek Hassan, presented the 524-page report to Parliament yesterday.
In the report, the commission said that it believed that the then prime minister was aware of the then finance minister’s actions that had caused the central bank to suffer losses amounting to RM31.5 billion, and it was also of the opinion that the then finance minister had deliberately been hiding facts and information and made misleading statements to the cabinet on the matter.
For the period mentioned in the report, Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the prime minister while Anwar Ibrahim was the deputy prime minister and finance minister.
Following that, RCI secretary Dr Yusof Ismail lodged a police report at the Putrajaya district police headquarters yesterday to call for the police the carry out the necessary investigations.
- Bernama
