Malaysia to Expedite Tabung Haji Reforms After RCI Report

A Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report released on July 29, 2026, revealed that Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) employed creative accounting to hide its financial instability between 2014 and 2020. The commission found that TH reported a RM3.4 billion profit in 2017 despite actually incurring a RM1.4 billion net loss under Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards. To maintain high profit distributions to depositors and pay excessive employee bonuses, management inflated asset values and ignored impairment losses, resulting in an asset-liability deficit since 2014. These findings were supported by a PricewaterhouseCoopers review suggesting accumulated losses of RM4.7 billion by the end of 2017.

Religious Affairs Minister Zulkifli Hasan announced on July 30 that the government will expedite the implementation of the remaining 25% of the RCI's 25 recommendations. He noted that the initial 75% of reforms contributed to TH receiving the Diamond Award for world's best haj management for 1447H/2026. Zulkifli indicated a willingness to restructure governance, potentially shifting financial and investment management to the Finance Minister while limiting his own jurisdiction to haj management.