EPF is another convenient source of funds

for our political leaders to use, much like Petronas.

Petronas reports only to the PM and billions could not be explained nor accounted for over the years. It contributes half of Malaysia's annual revenues and its depleting oil wells is a cause for concern because we are so used to its contributions to finance public expenditure. GST is supposed to be introduced to provide for the expected shortfall in future. Meanwhile, EPF has provided loans to Felda (which used to be another cash cow, which is why it is worrying), and now asked to provide finance for housing loans to low-income earners.

Our government's track record has left a trail of failures which is why people should be worried of its so-called good intentions. Instead of focusing and maintaining order in implementation of policies, schemes devised are likely to be indirect with the aim of confusing the public. Initial costs of large projects looked reasonable to gain public support, but always ended up costing a few times more (eg. PKFZ, Palace, etc.). Proton was started and maintained at the expense of higher car prices borne by all purchasers of imported and locally assembled vehicles. PM's and DPM's official residences in Putrajaya are owned by Putrajaya Holdings, yet renovations by successive PMs costed tens of millions each time, which does not make sense.

Objections to the current proposal to finance housing loans to low-wage earners are treated as being harsh and looking down on them. But the government should have used its own resources to finance such schemes instead of touching on employees' savings. Politicians come and go, who will be responsible when the government cannot honour its obligations as guarantor for its increasing mega projects? Incidentally, EPF's large fund at Rm407 billion is only almost the same as Malaysia's public debt at end of 2010! Can we be blamed if we think by using EPF, it was to avoid showing it as part of national debt?

"The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is a cash cow with billions in its coffer. To be more accurate, it has about RM407 billion, which easily makes it one of the largest funds in the world. All this billion represents the collective sweat and toil of the 13 million members. They contributed to the huge pile through compulsory deduction of their monthly salary. The money does not come from business ventures. This is a social security organisation and not a profit-making company.

But over the years, this growing gold mine began to attract the eyes of rapacious politicians in power. They saw in EPF a useful medium to bail out ailing companies. They began to put their hands in the pot and draw out huge stacks to invest in the stock market. Some RM5 billion was reportedly dumped to “shore up Bursa Malaysia” to mitigate the “effect of a global economic meltdown” a few years ago. In reality, the money was used to save a badly-hit company..."

More:

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2012/02/07/filthy-paws-in-epf-pool/

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