Chua Tee Yong Doubts KPMG Too?

Datuk Chua Tee Yong is proving himself to be the worst MCA Minister, first with his bogus RM1 billion Talam Debt Bailout claim and now, insinuating incompetence and fraud by in the audit by independent auditors KPMG by referring to the US Enron scandal.

On 3 July 2012, Datuk Chua Tee Yong commenced a series of malicious allegations against the Selangor state government led by Pakatan Rakyat with concocted claims that Selangor abused RM1 billion to bailout Talam Corporation by purchasing the latter’s properties at high prices, allowing the latter to recover from financial distress.  This has included the fictitious claim that Talam’s shares were lifted from suspension on Bursa Malaysia as a result of Selangor’s actions.

We have already proven that Talam was never suspended on Bursa Malaysia, and the company completed its financial regularization plan, which was approved by Securities Commission in 2009, well before any agreements was signed with the current Selangor state government.

Despite the embarrassment of making false allegations, as well as the detailed explanations given with regards to the fact that no money was ever paid to Talam Corporation by the state government and the non-existence of any RM1 billion abuse of any kind, MCA prodigy has been relentless in touring Selangor’s hills and lakes to continue the accusations that the state government either “over-paid” or made unsound investment decisions which disadvantaged the state, and benefited Talam.

The state government led by Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has taken the simple step of appointing independent international auditors KPMG to conduct a due diligence on the Talam deal immediately to ensure that the Malaysian public not only gets to hear from the state government, they have a open and transparent mechanism to evaluate the state’s competence.

The independent auditors have completed their due diligence study and were given access to every document requested to conduct the investigations.

KPMG has confirmed in its report that “the Selangor State Government entered into two debt settlement agreements with Talam in order to recover an amount of RM392 million of debts owed by Talam…” where “the debt settlement was in the form of settlement assets, comprising 9 plots of land, 2 properties and 60% shares in a subsidiary of Talam and cash/debt assignment.

Most importantly, the auditors concluded that “the settlement agreements entered into with Talam were purely a debt settlement arrangement” which means there is only collection from Talam, and no payment to Talam to purchase any properties from the latter as repeatedly accused by Datuk Chua and his merry men.

In fact, after reviewing all documents on the transactions, including valuation reports conducted by both the Federal government agencies as well as private property valuers, KPMG was happy to concluded that “the Selangor State Government made a sound commercial decision”.  KPMG further added that “the gross consideration is sufficient… to recover the Talam debts, with no debt waiver by Menteri Besar Incorporated”.

There can be no stronger endorsement on the decisions made by the state government under the Talam debt settlement agreement to prove not only that they were above board, they were also made in the interest of the state.  There was no “haircut” undertaken by Selangor in the recovery exercise.

Instead of hiding from sheer embarrassment, Datuk Chua Tee Yong has decided to humiliate himself further by stating in his tweet yesterday, “(an) audit report depends on the scope of the work. Enron and a lot of (other) cases show that (an) audit and its results are limited to the documents available," he said in a tweet.”

Datuk Chua Tee Yong is fast proving himself to be the least competent of the many incompetent MCA Ministers and Deputy Ministers in the Cabinet.  After clamouring for independent reports, Datuk Chua is now insinuating that he knows more, or has in his possession more documents than was supplied to KPMG in the latter’s audit.  He is now clearly insinuating that KPMG is not competent in its audit exercise and has taken part in audit fraud by comparing the Talam audit to the mega Enron audit scandal in the United States.

Datuk Chua is shameless in making such accusations especially since he himself claims to be a qualified Australia-certified Chartered Accountant.

If he has any further evidence to the contrary, we have set up a forum or debate in his constituency of Labis this coming weekend on 9th September 7.30pm for him to prove himself in front of his own constituents.

The state government has now officially appointed us, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, William Leong and Tony Pua to be the official spokespersons for the government on this issue.  There is no longer basis for Datuk Chua to give excuses that we do not represent the state and hence are unfit to “debate” him.

If Datuk Chua is not even willing to defend himself in front of his own voters who put him in office, then he should just forever hold his peace on the Talam issue and start focusing on more pressing issues in the Ministry of Agriculture such as recovering the RM250 million outstanding from National Feedlot Corporation.