KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said SRC International Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned unit of the Ministry of Finance (MoF), has invested RM3.81 billion of the RM4 billion borrowed from Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP) in overseas assets. Najib said this includes assets in countries like Indonesia and Mongolia.

“The total investment for SRC International is RM4.1 billion, of which RM3.81 billion has been invested in overseas assets related to natural resources and coal in countries like Indonesia and Mongolia,” he said in his written reply in Parliament to questions from PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli. Reporters obtained Najib’s reply yesterday.

Rafizi had asked Najib, who is the Finance Minister, to state all the expenses and investments of SRC International since its inception until 2015.

On Tuesday, Rafizi, the Pandan Member of Parliament, had urged the prime minister to order SRC International to return the RM4 billion it borrowed from KWAP.

The company has made losses of RM164.35 million with zero revenue registered for the financial year ended March 2014 (FY14) compared with a RM52.6 million profit a year earlier.

Rafizi said the loss was mainly due to a 50:50 joint venture in Mongolia between SRC International and Gobi Coal and Energy Ltd.

Yesterday, Rafizi claimed that out of the RM4.1 billion invested by SRC International, an estimated RM3.1 billion was put into “open-ended” funds that cannot be traced by auditors of the company.

He also expressed disappointment that the MoF had failed to fully disclose the expenses and investments of SRC International in its financial statement for FY14.

“Normally, if a company invests by buying stocks or interest in another company, the investment would be detailed in the financials of that subsidiary,” said Rafizi.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 26, 2015.