KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 ― Pembinaan PFI, an obscure firm owned by the Finance Ministry that racked up RM27.9 billion in liabilities in 2012, could have easily doubled up on its debt by now if left unchecked, DAP lawmaker Ong Kian Ming claimed today.
The Serdang MP claimed that just last year the company took on an Islamic Bai Muajjal loan with the Employee Provident Fund with a RM19.5 billion ceiling, potentially bumping up PFI’s liabilities to over RM47 billion.
“The spending of the government-owned company does not appear anywhere in any of the federal government budget accounts which means that all expenditure are ‘off-budget’ items,” Ong claimed in a statement.
“Unfortunately, three months into 2015, Pembinaan PFI still has not filed its company accounts for 2013 at the time of writing,” he added.
Ong claimed that the lack of transparency on the part of Pembinaan PFI is to “hide” government spending from the actual budget and could easily turn into another 1MDB.
According to the Auditor-General’s report in 2013, Pembinaan PFI Sdn Bhd had the third highest liabilities among all government-owned entities at the end of 2012. Its total liabilities were RM27.9 billion, behind national oil giant Petronas and sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional.
“But unlike Petronas and Khazanah, Pembinaan PFI does not have any operational income. Its RM1.94 million in revenue in 2012 was derived from interest income. This means that Pembinaan PFI cannot service its liabilities without help from somewhere else, namely the federal government.
“Even though the AG’s report also lists Pembinaan PFI as having the third most assets among all government-owned companies, its assets consist of land being leased to Pembinaan PFI by the Federal Lands Commission,” he said.
Ong claimed that more questions arose after the Federal Land Commission signed a deal in November to pay RM29.2 billion in rental to Pembinaan PFI in staggered payments of 30 blocks spread out over 15 years from February 15 2013 right up to August 13, 2027.
“The Prime Minister, who is Finance Minister, must ensure transparency in the spending, borrowings and debt repayment involving Pembinaan PFI to avoid another 1MDB scandal from occurring,” said Ong.
Putrajaya ordered an independent audit of 1MDB’s accounts last week after several allegations and a recent expose claimed of impropriety in a number of the state-owned investment firm’s deals.
