FORMER Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) chief executive officer Jalil Rasheed has responded to the parliamentary statement about his qualifications, stating that there has never been a problem with past employers until now.
“In every job, background checks were conducted by third party firms, and cross checked with past employers. Never a problem, till this. My degree was submitted to every employer, so they know,” said Jalil on Twitter.
He noted that he had studied as an external student, which he claimed is a known fact among employers and friends. He also stated that the root cause of why this was an issue in the first place was because he graduated 17 years ago.
“Some proper checks would suggest why its University of London (UOL)/London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) due to the way the colleges are arranged under the university,” he said.
Jalil also clarified that he had resigned because he “did not like where things were going.”
“If somebody did not like me in return, could have just told me (nobody did directly), and I would have resigned. Easy. This whole thing has been unnecessary. As far as I’m concerned, good riddance.”
“One must ask the question why this relentless witch hunt? Why this smear campaign to discredit? I was a professional who took my job seriously in wanting to bring professionalism into the firm. Perhaps that focus should be the priority rather than harping on a CEO who has already resigned. Move forward please. I certainly have,” he said.
This comes as a response to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s statement during the parliamentary session on July 16, which noted that LSE had issued an official statement that Jalil was not a graduate of LSE.
This follows the inquiries by the Securities Commission (SC) into the academic background of Jalil, which showed inconsistencies.
June 11 saw the SC meeting with Jalil for his side of the story, and on June 12 the SC submitted a letter to PNB’s board of directors requesting an explanation. The next day, June 13, Jalil resigned from the position. – July 17, 2020
