With the Pakatan Harapan government in place, many high-ranking officials and directors have offered their resignations. Now, it looks like Khazanah Nasional Berhad is the next organisation to go through such a change!
According to a media statement released by the sovereign wealth fund this morning (26th July), Khazanah Nasional announced that all members of its board of directors, including the managing director, Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, have offered their resignations in efforts to “facilitate a smooth and orderly transition under the new government”.
All board members, including the managing director, of Khazanah Nasional have offered to resign. pic.twitter.com/3gFobsHHje
— BFM News (@NewsBFM) July 26, 2018
According to the Malay Mail, a total of nine members of the board resigned, including Datuk Seri Nazir Razak (chairman of CIMB Group and brother of former prime minister Najib Tun Razak), Tan Sri Md Nor Md Yusof, Tan Sri Mohamed Azman Yahya, Datuk Mohammed Azlan Hashim, Tan Sri Andrew Sheng Len Tao (former Bank Negara Malaysia official), Tan Sri Raja Arshad Raja Uda, Datuk Nirmala Menon, and Yeo Kar Peng.
Source: Khazanah Nasional
The board members’ mass resignation has reportedly come after Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad openly criticised Khazanah for “deviating from the original purpose of its creation”.
Khazanah recently caught the nation’s attention when news of the fund allegedly giving the former Barisan Nasional (BN) government RM1.2 billion to help pay for 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) dues to Abu Dhabi fund IPIC in mid-2017 surfaced in light of Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) historic win in GE14.
Source: The Star
In exchange for the money, Khazanah was reportedly given redeemable shares owned by the Ministry of Finance. In response to reports about this issue, the sovereign wealth fund clarified in a statement, saying,
“The Ministry of Finance exercised its right in August 2017 to redeem outstanding Redeemable Convertible Cumulative Preference Shares amounting to 1.2 billion ringgit, which were issued to the ministry in 2011.”
However, they did not comment on claims that the funds were used to pay off 1MDB’s debts.
What are your thoughts on this recent mass resignation? Let us know in the comments below!
Also read: 5 Malaysian Heads & CEOs Who Unexpectedly Resigned Since May 2018
