PETALING JAYA: Ernst&Young (E&Y) has clarified that it was neither the auditor of Lembaga Tabung Haji’s (TH) financial statements nor did it offer an opinion on the dividend declarations.
The firm said in a statement today that it was not the auditor of TH and did not issue any audit report in respect of the financial statements of TH.
In addition to that, E&Y also did not review TH’s income statements and was not involved in the valuation of TH’s and its subsidiaries’ assets and liabilities.
“EY was engaged by the Directors of TH to report on whether the pro forma balance sheets as at 31 December 2015, 31 December 2016 and 31 December 2017 had been properly prepared based on the applicable criteria,” it said.
“The Directors of TH prepared the pro forma balance sheets as at 31 December 2015, 31 December 2016 and 31 December 2017 solely to illustrate the impact of reporting TH’s investments in equities, securities and properties at realisable asset value instead of historical costs on TH’s balance sheets,” it added.
EY said it did not perform an audit of the financial information used in compiling the pro forma balance sheets but instead reported that the adjustments made were appropriate solely for the purpose of illustrating the impact of reporting TH’s investments in equities, securities and properties at realisable asset value on its balance sheets.
“ At no time did EY opine on the appropriateness of the declaration of distributable profit as dividend pursuant to the Tabung Haji Act 1995. EY also wishes to draw attention to Section 22 of the Tabung Haji Act 1995, which stipulates the conditions to be fulfilled by TH in relation to declaration of distributable profit as dividend,” it said.
EY said its report cannot be relied upon for the purpose of dividend declaration on Feb 4, 2016, Feb 3, 2017 and Feb 7, 2017 for the financial years ended Dec 2015, 2016 and 2017, as its report for the aforesaid years were only issued subsequent to the dividend declaration dates.
This came as a response to Tabung Haji former chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Rahim’s statement on E&Y having valued TH’s realisable asset value as exceeding its liabilities.
Abdul Azeez slammed the revelation made by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Datuk Seri Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa for misleading the public by accusing the pilgrimage fund of illegally paying dividends (hibah) to its depositors.
He said Mujahid’s revelation on the fund’s deficit position was also inaccurate as it did not take into account a report by E&Y.
It was discovered in 2017 accounts, TH assets totalled RM70.3 billion while its liabilities stood at RM74.4 billion, resulting in a deficit of RM4.1 billion.
