Lembaga Tabung Haji allegedly cooked its books to justify paying a dividend of up to 6.25 percent ahead of the 14th general election, according to a report by Singapore's Straits Times.

The report quoted a senior official as saying that Tabung Haji "faked last year's accounts to justify its dividend payout".

The dividend payout amounting to RM2.7 billion - just shy of its RM2.8 billion net profit - was paid three months before the May 9 general election.

The report added that the new Pakatan Harapan government is mulling over ways to deal with the pilgrimage savings fund.

It stated that the fund’s assets is RM4 billion short of the RM64 billion depositors have contributed.

The latest claim came amid the Tabung Haji board lodging police reports against its former leadership, alleging that RM22 million had been misused for political purposes.

This is not the first time concerns about Tabung Haji's shortfall between assets and deposits had been raised.

In 2016, PKR's Rafizi Ramli had claimed that Tabung Haji faced a RM3 billion shortfall in assets compared to deposits.