KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 ― To disprove a perception of “double-standards”, an MP called on the federal government today to suspend Felda Global Ventures Berhad (FGV) chairman Tan Sri Isa Samad pending investigations into corporate irregularities amounting to millions of ringgit.
Petaling Jaya Utara lawmaker Tony Pua said there were serious allegations against Isa involving “ridiculous deals” worth as much as RM850 million that smelled of power abuse and deserved investigation as much as the ongoing probe against four other FGV senior officials, including its president and CEO Datuk Zakaria Arshad.
“The Government must move to suspend Tan Sri Isa Samad to investigate scandalous approval of RM850 million of “ridiculous deals”, just as the Felda Global Ventures Board has suspended the CEO for the purported RM46 million worth of irregular transactions,” Pua said in a statement.
He pointed out that the allegations included an additional investment of £100 million (RM550 million) in Felda Cambridge Nanosystems Ltd despite a RM117 million loss over the past few years, and another RM300 million to acquire a 30 per cent stake in a creamer factory that is not part of the palm oil giant’s core business.
He asserted that the allegations needed to be taken seriously as they came from Zakaria, who had also claimed direct interference from the FGV board by insisting on the award of contracts through direct negotiations instead of through bidding, a practice the latter was seeking to stop since being appointed FGV chief executive 15 months ago.
Pua added that Isa has kept silent in the face of the allegations, which only serves to fan rumours.
“On that basis alone, just as the Board has suspended the CEO and four others in the company’s management pending internal audit investigations, we call upon the Government, who is the controlling shareholder of FGVH, to immediately suspend Tan Sri Isa as the Chairman, pending investigations,” Pua said.
He indicated that it would be “double standards” if Zakaria and the other top FGV officials were suspended for a RM46 million transgression but Isa allowed to get away “scot free” in “violating corporate governance ethics by pushing through the approval of RM850 million of ‘ridiculous deals’ despite being merely a non-executive Chairman”.
Zakaria, FGV chief financial officer Ahmad Tifli Mohd Talha, FGV Trading chief executive officer Ahmad Salman Omar, and FGV subsidiary Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd senior general manager Kamarzaman Abd Karim have been on forced indefinite leave since Tuesday pending internal scrutiny into alleged irregularities over the delayed payment owed by Afghan firm Safitex.
The federal government has appointed Datuk Seri Idris Jala, chief executive of the private government efficiency firm Pemandu Associates, as a third party independent investigator.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is also conducting its own investigations into the corruption and power abuse allegations said to be plaguing the world’s third-largest palm oil plantation operator.
