This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 1, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Someone in Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) “obviously knows” what happened to the RM2 billion paid by the central bank to purchase a parcel of land from the finance ministry, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday.

Dr Mahathir said this in response to news of the suspension of four BNM officials reported yesterday.

“I only know that the land was sold to Bank Negara. What happens after that, I don’t know. Where the money goes, I don’t know.

“But, obviously somebody in Bank Negara knows about it. [The authorities] are investigating, that’s all,” Dr Mahathir said during a press conference on the national Industry 4.0 policy here.

It was reported yesterday that four BNM officials had been told to go on leave pending investigations into BNM’s purchase of land contiguous to the central bank’s Sasana Kijang complex known as Lot 41 for a reported RM2.066 billion.

But the central bank issued a statement later saying the four opted to take the leave of absence to facilitate an ongoing review by an independent party on the land buy

When the land was purchased in January, BNM said it would be used for the relocation of the Global Islamic Finance University and the International Shari’ah Research Academy for Islamic Finance.

In a statement dated May 31, it said the deal was agreed upon by both parties based on market price and supported by an independent private sector property valuation firm Suleiman & Co.

At the time, it was noted that it was rare for a government agency like BNM to buy land from the Federal government, and for the transaction to be done at market price. At RM2 billion, the price of the 2.43 million sq ft parcel works out to RM823 per sq ft.

That same month, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the ministry used proceeds under the purview of his predecessor Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who was also the former prime minister, to pay part of 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) debt owed to Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC).

On Oct 25, Najib and former Treasury secretary-general (sec-gen) Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah were jointly slapped with six charges for redirecting RM6.636 billion worth of government funds, originally slated for other purposes, to pay off 1MDB debts to IPIC.

Under the charge sheet, the sixth charge detailed that Najib and Mohd Irwan, under their capacity as public servants namely finance minister and the Treasury secretary-general respectively, committed criminal breach of trust involving RM2 billion worth of government funds.