KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — Mudajaya Group Bhd has denied that it is being investigated by Indian authorities for corruption over the construction company’s coal-fired power plant project in India.
Mudajaya stressed today that neither it, nor RKM Powergen Pte Ltd (RKMP), of which it holds a 26 per cent stake, are being probed over its 4x360MW coal-fired thermal power plant in Chhattisgarh, India, as reported by Australian daily Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) last Saturday.
“Neither Mudajaya nor its 26 per cent-owned associate R.K.M. Powergen Private Limited (“RKMP”) is currently under any probe or investigation by the Indian authorities in relation to the company’s coal-fired power plant project in Chhattisgarh, India,” Mudajaya said in a statement today.
Mudajaya said that RKMP had signed a coal supply agreement with South Eastern Coalfields Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of state-owned coal mining company Coal India Limited, on September 3 for the supply of coal for phase 1 of the coal-fired thermal power plant in Chhattisgarh.
The construction company also said that RKMP signed another coal supply agreement with South Eastern Coalfields on September 23 for the supply of coal for phase 2 of the project.
“We wish to reiterate that with the successful signing of these coal supply agreements for the total contracted quantity of coal of 6,240,857 MT per year, RKMP has secured full coal requirement for the operation of its 4x360MW coal-fired thermal power plant at Ucchpinda, Chhattisgarh, India,” it added.
SMH reported that the Indian authorities are investigating RKMP’s coal allotment bid for graft, involving one of its partner companies and its “connection to an Indian politician”, amid another corruption probe on a separate AU$5 billion (RM15 billion) coal-mining deal involving a subsidiary of international construction company, Leighton Holdings.
The Australian newspaper noted that David Savage, who used to head Leighton International, had resigned as director from Mudajaya following reports of corruption against Leighton International.
It also said that former Leighton Asia director Asgari Stephens remains on Mudajaya’s corporate board.
But Mudajaya clarified today that Stephens resigned as independent non-executive director from Mudajaya on June 27, 2012.
Malaysia’s Securities Commission (SC) had investigated Mudajaya’s power plant project in India in 2010 and concluded that Mudajaya had failed to adequately disclose its transfer of funds between related entities, a practice known as “round-tripping”.
“The SC views seriously the failure to make adequate disclosures by MGB (Mudajaya) prior to August 30, 2010, and had on October 6, 2010 issued a caution and reminder to MGB and its board of directors to strictly observe its disclosure obligation,” the SC said in a statement dated October 7, 2010.
SMH has reported that India’s Central Bureau of Investigation is probing a Leighton Holdings subsidiary, Thiess, for corruption after it won a A$5 billion (RM15 billion) Indian coal-mining deal in partnership with Minecs Finvest, a company owned by the brother of India’s former coal minister, Santosh Bagrodia.
The Thiess-Minecs Finvest joint venture had won the right to mine the huge Pakri Bawadih coal deposit in Jharkhand state in 2010.
SMH’s report comes after Leighton Holdings said last month that its overseas corruption problems were restricted to Indonesia and Iraq.
The Australian daily quoted Thiess as denying any impropriety in the India coal deal, saying that Bagrodia was no longer coal minister at the time the contract was awarded.
