Chairman Mohd Sidek Hassan gives all parties up to Thursday evening to submit their written submissions before presenting the panel’s report to the king on Oct 13.
PUTRAJAYA: The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate foreign exchange (forex) losses suffered by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) in the 1990s ended its hearing today, three days earlier than scheduled.
The hearing was supposed to end on Thursday but tribunal chairman Mohd Sidek Hassan declared no more witnesses would be called, after testimonies by 24 witnesses and the submission of 42 documents over nine days from Aug 8.
Sidek, a former chief secretary to the government, thanked all witnesses, RCI secretariat staff, the conducting officers and lawyers who appeared for concerned parties.
“We will take into consideration all the submissions before presenting our report to the king,” he said.
The RCI is scheduled to deliver its findings to the king on Oct 13.
Sidek gave all parties until Thursday evening to send in their written submissions to the secretariat.
He also said the secretariat would not lodge police reports as suggested by lawyer Mohamed Hanif Khatri Abdulla, who represented Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in the proceedings, as it would only act based on its terms of reference.
“Many things have been said in cyberspace but our report will be based on evidence before the RCI,” he said.
Haniff said Special Affairs Department director-general Puad Zarkashi had accused former BNM adviser Nor Mohamed Yakcop of protecting “someone” when he took the entire blame over the forex losses.
Sidek said the tribunal also decided against calling former BNM assistant governor Abdul Murad Khalid as requested by Haniff.
“He has given his evidence and we will evaluate his testimony for our report,” he said.
Haniff had applied for Murad to take the stand again as he had made grave allegations in an interview with two Umno-linked media 25 years after the forex scandal took place.
Murad had given an interview to New Straits Times and Utusan Malaysia reporters on Jan 27.
In the interview, Murad said BNM lost about US$10 billion but the central bank did not conduct any internal investigation and neither did any law enforcement agency.
On an application by Haniff for Sidek to withdraw his conclusion that BNM lost RM30.5 billion as claimed by a witness, the chairman said “there is nothing to retract”.
“During the inquiry, there were some numbers raised. We will make our conclusion in our report,” he said.
Earlier, the 25th witness, former auditor-general Ishak Tadin, failed to testify as he suffered from short-term memory impairment, according to his son Rizal.
It is learnt that Ishak, 85, was supposed to confirm several correspondence between him, former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim and then BNM governor Jaffar Hussein.
The RCI panel wanted to question Ishak on the 1993 Bank Negara Report which said the forex losses amounted to RM5.7 billion while a lower figure was stated in one of Ishak’s letters to Anwar.
Other members of the RCI panel are High Court judge Kamaludin Md Said, Bursa Malaysia Bhd chief executive officer Tajuddin Atan, Special Task Force to Facilitate Business co-chairman Saw Choo Boon and Malaysian Institute of Accountants member K Pushpanathan.
The RCI’s scope of inquiry is to:
Determine the authenticity of the allegation on the foreign exchange losses suffered by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) in the 1990s and its implications on the national economy;
Determine whether BNM’s involvement in the foreign exchange activities which caused the losses contradicted with the Central Bank Ordinance 1958 or any relevant laws;
Determine whether there were elements of hidden facts and information relating to foreign exchange losses suffered by BNM and misleading statements given to the cabinet, parliament and the public;
Recommend suitable actions to be taken against those found to be directly and/or indirectly involved in causing the losses and hiding the facts and information on the losses, and,
Recommend appropriate measures to ensure the incident will not recur.
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