Kuala lumpur: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that he would address the issue of the Retirement Fund (Incorporated) (KWAP)'s investment losses in the Indonesian aquaculture technology company eFishery during the Dewan Negara sitting tomorrow.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, Anwar, who also serves as the Finance Minister, emphasized that although KWAP does not report directly to the government, he does not consider this a valid excuse to avoid addressing the problem. 'I will answer the question in the Dewan Negara tomorrow... KWAP is a financial institution managing pension funds. It has an investment panel and a board. It does not report to us, but I do not want to use that as an excuse. Let us present the facts tomorrow in the Dewan Negara,' Anwar stated when queried by reporters about KWAP's RM200 million investment loss in eFishery.
Previously, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Datuk Seri Abdul Halim Aman disclosed that a special team had been established to conduct a comprehensive review of the matter. The Finance Ministry (MoF) highlighted in a written parliamentary reply that KWAP had fallen victim to a planned fraud involving the manipulation of eFishery's financial statements by its management.
KWAP was reported to have invested US$47.7 million in eFishery in July 2023. Last year, eFishery co-founder Gibran Huzaifah was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment by a court in Bandung, Indonesia, after being convicted of criminal breach of trust and money laundering.
Meanwhile, KWAP said in a statement that its total investment in eFishery amounted to RM163.4 million, representing about 2.51 per cent of the company's total shareholding. It noted that KWAP was a minority shareholder, while the majority stake was held by other investors, including major global institutional investors who were also affected by the misconduct.
According to KWAP, appropriate follow-up actions had been taken in accordance with its internal governance and accountability framework.