PUTRAJAYA: The government will appoint an external auditing firm to audit the Tabung Harapan Malaysia being collected to help pay the national debts.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said all funds collected will only be used to pay off the country’s debts and not for any other reasons.
“We will get the external audit firm to audit the accounts and in a transparent manner as it involves public money,” he told reporters at a press conference here.
Lim further elaborated that the Tabung Harapan funds will not be put in any “fixed assets to increase revenue in order to pay the national debts. We are not going to use it for anything else, instead we will abide by what the trust fund was created for.”
As of 1pm today, Tabung Harapan Fund has collected RM35.3 million.
Earlier, Lim received a donation of RM3 million from Matrix Concepts Holdings Bhd’s group managing director, Datuk Lee Tian Hock.
The property developer will also be donating another RM2 million, once its associates and sub-contractors contribute, said Lee.
On another matter, Lim said that currently, the government has no plans to peg the ringgit against any other major currencies.
“We have no such suggestions or plans to peg the ringgit.”
This morning, Bernama reported that the ringgit was slightly lower against the US dollar in the early session on weaker demand and following economic data which showed a decline in Malaysia’s manufacturing sector for May.
At 9.15am, the local unit was quoted at 3.9740/9780 against the greenback from Monday's close 3.9700/9740.