The government grant used to settle legal fees incurred by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Jamil Khir Baharom and two others was kept in the same bank account with tithe funds.

This, said Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP) secretary Che Mat Che Ali today, was why the allegation that tithe funds were used to pay the legal fees had come about.

Che Mat, who is also Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department director, vehemently denied that this had occurred.

The tithe funds were temporarily deposited in the same account with a government grant of RM700,000 last year, he told reporters after announcing the 2011 collection of MAIWP’s Tithe Collection Centre (PPZ) in Kuala Lumpur today.

The Auditor-General’s Report 2010 claimed that RM63,650 was withdrawn from the MAIWP’s tithe funds to settle advance legal costs incurred by Jamil, Che Mat and Federal Territory syarie chief prosecutor Shamsuddin Hussain when Anwar Ibrahim named them as respondents in his 2010 qazaf application in the Syariah Court.

“We can use the money (government grant) as well as the tithe funds to pay the legal costs as long it is intended to protect MAIWP’s credibility and esteem in managing Muslim affairs in the Federal Territories. This is allowed,” said Che Mat.

He said the RM700,000 grant was given by the government last year for the purpose of expenditure incurred, including legal fees in defending MAIWP’s credibility.

Che Mat said using tithe funds to pay legal costs in cases involving ‘hukum syarak’ (Islamic law) in accordance with the Federal Territories Syarak Law was allowed based on the Federal Territories Islamic Law Consultation Committee’s decision at a meeting on Sept 3, 2009 to approve a payment of RM205,000 for expenses under the ‘asnaf fisabilillah’ (eligible to receive aid from zakat collection for struggling for Islam) category.

“This means we can use either the government grant or tithe funds under the category of asnaf fisabilillah to defend the dignity of the Federal Territories religious institution.

“However, let me clarify that we paid the legal costs with the government grant. We did not use tithe funds even though we can also use the money as explained by the Federal Territories mufti yesterday,” he said.

On the refusal of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) to accept Jamil’s denial of abusing tithe funds and threat to lodge a police report against him, Che Mat said PKR was at liberty to do so but MAIWP had documents pertaining to the expenses.

Tite collection increased by 24 percent

Meanwhile, MAIWP’s Zakat Collection Centre (PPZ) chairperson Mustafa Abdul Rahman said its tithe collection in 2011 increased by 24 percent to RM341.3 million from the previous year as the number of zakat payers rose by 13 percent to 100,497.

He said the number of business zakat payers increased by 10 percent to 1,571 last year from the previous year, thus the increased business tithe collection by 63 percent to RM54.8 million.

Payment of tithes through the PPZ-MAIWP portal, which was launched on Aug 4 last year, also showed a positive result and until December, RM1.14 million was collected from 1,074 zakat payers, he added.