Is LTAT next on Putrajaya’s purge list?

CEO Lodin Wok Kamaruddin and other key persons may be on uncertain ground, thanks to their alleged links to ex-PM Najib.

Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, CEO of the Armed Forces Fund Board. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: The ease with which Khazanah Nasional was purged of people linked to the Najib Razak administration has apparently encouraged the government to train its sights on several other lucrative funds.

According to a well placed source, one of the targets is the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT), which manages money collected from soldiers. It made a profit of RM667 million last year.

The source told FMT that the fund held about RM9 billion in contributions from members. “That’s too big for Putrajaya to overlook in its clean-up process,” he said in reference to an operation to rid government-linked organisations of individuals perceived to be too close to Najib.

He said the axe might fall on LTAT’s CEO, Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, and some of his lieutenants.

The source also said Lodin had so far warded off attempts to remove him from LTAT.

Lodin was once chairman of 1MDB, the troubled state fund alleged to have squandered billions of ringgit through various misdeeds.

At present, he is also group managing director of LTAT-controlled Boustead Holdings, a government-linked company with RM17 billion in assets.

He has distanced himself from allegations of impropriety involving the controversial relocation of the Sungai Besi air force base to make way for Bandar Malaysia, a turnkey project of 1MDB which Putrajaya has allowed to proceed.

In 2013, 1MDB awarded a RM2.1 billion contract to the LTAT-owned Perbadanan Perwira Harta Malaysia (PPHM) to develop eight of the sites to which the air base would be relocated.

Lodin defended 1MDB against an allegation by former Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli that it was making use of its connection with LTAT to delay payments to PPHM and was thus shortchanging the fund’s contributors.

LTAT filed a suit against Rafizi, but withdrew it less than two weeks after last May’s general election.

Before the election, Lodin was consistent in defending the Najib administration against allegations that it was using LTAT for 1MDB’s benefit.

About a month before the polls, he brushed off a claim by former cabinet minister Rafidah Aziz that the defence ministry was sidelining LTAT in projects involving army assets.

“The defence ministry constantly gives priority to LTAT for initiating its projects, especially those that involve land swaps,” he said. “In fact, profits from such LTAT projects are returned to members of the armed forces via yearly dividends.”

LTAT is a statutory body that provides retirement benefits to armed forces personnel. Each soldier contributes 10% of his monthly salary to the fund and the government adds 15%.

Its assets include skyscrapers standing on some of the most sought after locations in Kuala Lumpur. -FMT

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