PUTRAJAYA: Former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) advisor Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop did not give detailed information on the foreign exchange (forex) losses incurred by the central bank in 1992, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI).
Anwar, who was then finance minister, claimed Nor Mohamed had failed to provide an accurate report on the losses to him and former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
He said then BNM governor Tan Sri Jaffar Hussein told Anwar that he had agreed for Nor Mohamed to tender his resignation due to the losses.
"If he declined to resign, I would have ordered for him to be sacked," Anwar said on Thursday.
Nor Mohamed resigned as the advisor in 1994.
Anwar, 70, was responding to a question by conducting officer Julia Ibrahim before the RCI's five-man panel chaired by Petronas chairman Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, which was set up to investigate the forex losses.
He said he had gone with former treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Clifford Francis Herbert to brief Dr Mahathir on the losses but the former premier did not give any instruction.
Anwar said Jaffar informed him on the losses when he was asked about the forex transaction before tabling the Bank Negara Financial Report 1992 to Cabinet in March 1993.
Anwar denied that he had concealed the actual losses by the central bank to Cabinet.
image: http://www.thestar.com.my/~/media/online/2017/09/08/11/09/anwar0809.ashx?h=404&w=620&la=en
He said this to Mohd Sidek who repeatedly asked him if he was trying to conceal the losses.
The forex losses, alleged to be about RM32bil, is believed to have happened between 1987 and 1992.
Anwar, who is serving a five-year jail sentence for sodomy, was the finance minister during that period.
Dr Mahathir made his second appearance at the RCI at 2.15pm and left at 4.15pm on Thursday.
Earlier, the central bank's Foreign Exchange Management Department director, Azman Mat Ali, 54, said Dr Mahathir had never entered the bank's foreign exchange trading room.
Azman was replying to a question by Dr Mahathir's counsel Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla who asked whether his client entered the room when the forex was traded, he replied, "He never did".
He said when he was first transferred to the foreign exchange section as a dealer, his job was to buy and sell forex as directed by the bank's management.
"I did not remember the specific figure of the transaction but the amount can reach more than US$1bil a day," he said, adding that apart from reporting to Nor Mohamed and a chief dealer, nobody knew the extent of the forex trading.
Azman said he had carried out the transaction on the instruction of Nor Mohamed.
The hearing continues on Sept 18.
Read more at http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/09/07/nor-mohamed-failed-to-give-accurate-report-on-forex-losses-anwar-tells-rci/#G4uFqmlHreDO1fkk.99
