Yesterday, Bank Negara (BNM) Governor Tan Sri Muhamad Ibrahim tried to provide a justification for the central bank’s outrageous purchase of 55.79 acres of land for approximately RM2 billion from the Federal Government. On the 4th of January, BNM announced that is had acquired the land for the development of a new financial education hub.
Tan Sri Muhamad Ibrahim said that the Bank wasn’t forced to buy the land by the government and instead it was BNM that requested the government to sell the land to them. Tan Sri Muhamad said that the deal between BNM and government was an “arm’s length agreement”, which is to say that both parties were acting in their own interest without any pressure by the other party.
As reported by the Edge Weekly in January, following Bank Negara’s announcement of the deal, many industry observers had found the purchase puzzling because it was rare for a government agency to buy land from the government more so at a market price. This is especially so when the land is intended to be used for the development of an education hub, rather than a commercial property. Land acquired for public universities are usually transferred at a nominal rate, while the land purchased by BNM works out to approximately RM823 psf.
The question must hence be asked? Why did the Governor not apply for the land at nominal rate? This is especially since the education hub is not a commercial venture? Even 1MDB for example, secured more than 500 acres of land at nominal or heavily discounted value from the Federal Government for commercial purposes.
Hence Malaysians cannot be blamed for suspecting that the entire transaction is a blatant attempt by the Federal Government to raid the Bank Negara coffers.
It also does not escape notice that the timing of the transaction and payment coincided with time 1MDB had to make it US$600 million second instalment payment to IPIC at the end of last year.
Despite questions being asked by the media, analysts, critics and even Members of Parliament, both 1MDB and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) have refused to clarify the source of funds for the above payments by 1MDB. The question is very important because we all know that 1MDB is effectively insolvent and Malaysians have the right to know if the MoF utilised tax-payers’ funds to further bail out 1MDB.
Hence, the Bank Negara Governor Muhamad Ibrahim “keep an arms length” nonsense is completely not credible and fools no one. Why should it be arms length in the first place when the land was not intended for Bank Negara to make a profit? Until these questions are properly answered, Malaysians certainly cannot be blamed for believing that Bank Negara allowed itself to be raided by the MoF in order to bail out 1MDB.
Showing posts with label 1MDB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1MDB. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 06, 2018
Saturday, February 03, 2018
The first person who should be investigated for spreading the most outrageous ‘fake news’ in the country is none other than the Prime Minister himself, who claimed that the 1MDB’s monster RM42 billion debt is “not missing”
Earlier this week, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak announced that the government is looking into introducing laws to curb fake news which is a threat to political stability and public order. The Prime Minister said the move was necessary because the people could be instigated to hate the government or commit something like uprisings due to the influence of fake news.
However, it could not have been more ironical that the biggest purveyor of fake news today is none other than the Prime Minister himself.
Yesterday, Dato’ Seri Najib defended the 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) RM42 billion debt, saying the money never disappeared, unlike the RM31 billion losses incurred in Bank Negara’s (BNM) foreign exchange scandal.
However, in the BNM scandal, no one was accused of pocketing the money.
However, in the case of 1MDB, the whereabouts of the RM42 billion, or a substantial portion of it is unknown and/or unverified. In fact, if indeed Dato’ Seri Najib Razak was telling the truth, the question must be asked, why did the Cabinet classify the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB under the Official Secrets Act?
Or can Dato’ Seri Najib tell us where US$940 million worth of “units” is currently parked after the original custodial bank, BSI Bank was shut down?
If all monies are indeed properly accounted for in 1MDB, why is it that 1MDB has failed to produce a single audited financial statements since March 2014? In fact, it was the missing funds highlighted by none other than the United States Department of Justice (US DOJ) which led Deloitte Malaysia to withdraw their endorsement for 1MDB’s March 2013 and 2014 accounts. This means that 1MDB doesn’t have any properly audited financial statements for the past 6 years!
It could not be further ironical that Dato’ Seri Najib was lying through his teeth about 1MDB’s RM42 billion debt in front of 1,200 Muslim religious and village leaders who were about to depart for their holy pilgramage in Mecca.
Since the US DOJ exposed the money trail originating from 1MDB into the personal bank account of Dato’ Seri Najib, the Prime Minister has refused to confirm or deny the allegations. The US DOJ showed how approximately US$732 million was laundered into his account with Ambank between 2011 and 2014.
The US DOJ further showed how some of these funds have been subsequently used to acquire a US$27.3 million pink diamond pendant for his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor as well as a US$250 million luxury yacht by Jho Low.
In addition, there was also the sum of US$238 million from 1MDB which found its way to Datin Seri Rosmah’s son, Riza Aziz’s company in the United States, Red Granite Capital.
The above does not yet include billions of dollars of other assets, including private jets, luxury properties all around the world and rare expensive masterpieces, which were in the process of being seized by the United States government. These assets were deemed assets acquired via illegally laundered funds which originated from 1MDB.
Worst of all, all our questions relating to all of the above have been rejected by the Parliament Speaker so that Dato Seri Najib Razak need not be accountable to Malaysians. It cannot be more obvious that the Prime Minister has plenty to hide.
However, it could not have been more ironical that the biggest purveyor of fake news today is none other than the Prime Minister himself.
Yesterday, Dato’ Seri Najib defended the 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) RM42 billion debt, saying the money never disappeared, unlike the RM31 billion losses incurred in Bank Negara’s (BNM) foreign exchange scandal.
However, in the BNM scandal, no one was accused of pocketing the money.
However, in the case of 1MDB, the whereabouts of the RM42 billion, or a substantial portion of it is unknown and/or unverified. In fact, if indeed Dato’ Seri Najib Razak was telling the truth, the question must be asked, why did the Cabinet classify the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB under the Official Secrets Act?
Or can Dato’ Seri Najib tell us where US$940 million worth of “units” is currently parked after the original custodial bank, BSI Bank was shut down?
If all monies are indeed properly accounted for in 1MDB, why is it that 1MDB has failed to produce a single audited financial statements since March 2014? In fact, it was the missing funds highlighted by none other than the United States Department of Justice (US DOJ) which led Deloitte Malaysia to withdraw their endorsement for 1MDB’s March 2013 and 2014 accounts. This means that 1MDB doesn’t have any properly audited financial statements for the past 6 years!
It could not be further ironical that Dato’ Seri Najib was lying through his teeth about 1MDB’s RM42 billion debt in front of 1,200 Muslim religious and village leaders who were about to depart for their holy pilgramage in Mecca.
Since the US DOJ exposed the money trail originating from 1MDB into the personal bank account of Dato’ Seri Najib, the Prime Minister has refused to confirm or deny the allegations. The US DOJ showed how approximately US$732 million was laundered into his account with Ambank between 2011 and 2014.
The US DOJ further showed how some of these funds have been subsequently used to acquire a US$27.3 million pink diamond pendant for his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor as well as a US$250 million luxury yacht by Jho Low.
In addition, there was also the sum of US$238 million from 1MDB which found its way to Datin Seri Rosmah’s son, Riza Aziz’s company in the United States, Red Granite Capital.
The above does not yet include billions of dollars of other assets, including private jets, luxury properties all around the world and rare expensive masterpieces, which were in the process of being seized by the United States government. These assets were deemed assets acquired via illegally laundered funds which originated from 1MDB.
Worst of all, all our questions relating to all of the above have been rejected by the Parliament Speaker so that Dato Seri Najib Razak need not be accountable to Malaysians. It cannot be more obvious that the Prime Minister has plenty to hide.
Tuesday, January 09, 2018
Did 1MDB resort to carefully leaked fake news to The Singapore Straits Times to cover up the fact that the Ministry of Finance forked out another RM2.4 billion to foot the bill for 1MDB’s debt to IPIC?
1MDB proudly announced that they had made their final US$602.7 million or RM2.4 billion settlement payment to Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Company (IPIC) on 27 December, four days ahead of their deadline.
The problem is, we all know 1MDB is completely insolvent. So Malaysians are rightly concerned as to how 1MDB paid its latest instalment of their debt. All that is stated in the official 1MDB statement is that the payment is funded through its “on-going rationalisation programme”.
No one of course, has a clue as to what the “rationalisation programme” entails.
What is more interesting is the carefully planted leaks to The Singapore Straits Times (SST) to reveal that the funds to repay IPIC came from the sale of investments in financial instruments and stakes held in two 1MDB-related entities that own tracts of land in Penang and Pulau Indah, Selangor. The report merely identified the anonymous buyers as “concerns ultimately controlled by Chinese state-owned enterprises”.
This is not the first time SST had carried out a hatchet stories which helped cover up some of the 1MDB’s financial shenanigans. When the Bandar Malaysia sale to an Iskandar Waterfront-led consortium was terminated out-of-the-blue by the Ministry of Finance, it was SST which created a media maelstorm by reporting on 9 May 2017 that “Government officials and financial executives close to the situation told The Straits Times that negotiations with the Dalian Wanda Group to take a central role as master developer have reached an advanced stage…”
“Malaysian government officials noted that the new deal would be substantially higher than the previous RM12.3 billion valuation tag for the entire project. According to financial executives familiar with ongoing talks, Wanda has proposed to use half of the development for tourism and entertainment-related ventures valued at roughly US$8 billion,” the Singapore paper added.
The above proved to be a hoax of course, because when Dato’ Seri Najib Razak met Wanda a week later, he came home empty-handed – without even a face-saving “Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)” signed.
The current SST report is similarly couched in the same language. SST claimed that “Malaysian government officials declined to identify the buyers in the real estate transactions but one financial executive close to the situation said that the equity interests in the 1MDB real estate entities were acquired by "concerns ultimately controlled by Chinese state-owned enterprises". The executive declined to elaborate.”
The SST report was inevitably picked up by nearly all local media outfits. This clearly served the interest of 1MDB which would want to avoid prickly questions on how they found the funds to repay IPIC.
The question really is, if 1MDB has really succeeded in disposing of its controversial properties in Pulau Indah and Penang to China-owned state enterprises, why is there absolute silence from official sources? Dato’ Seri Najib Razak and 1MDB would have been carrying out victory parades for proving their critics wrong, as they did in the past.
Surely if the companies owning these parcels of land were sold for billions of ringgit to foreign investors, from China or otherwise, official transactions would have taken place and the information would be publicly available.
More curiously, these parcels of land in Selangor and Penang were purchased by 1MDB for RM294 million and RM1.1 billion respectively. Critics were aplenty in citing that both parcels were purchased at inflated prices. However, even so, the combined purchase amounted to less than RM1.4 billion.
Hence if the SST report were to be true, then it begs the question as to which Chinese state-owned enterprises would pay an outrageous RM2.4 billion for these parcels, which in-turn allowed 1MDB to repay its second loan instalment to IPIC? Or is it more likely that it is another hoax to evade disclosing the fact that it was really the Ministry of Finance, which directly or indirectly, repaid both instalments amounting to US$1.24 billion to IPIC?
The problem is, we all know 1MDB is completely insolvent. So Malaysians are rightly concerned as to how 1MDB paid its latest instalment of their debt. All that is stated in the official 1MDB statement is that the payment is funded through its “on-going rationalisation programme”.
No one of course, has a clue as to what the “rationalisation programme” entails.
What is more interesting is the carefully planted leaks to The Singapore Straits Times (SST) to reveal that the funds to repay IPIC came from the sale of investments in financial instruments and stakes held in two 1MDB-related entities that own tracts of land in Penang and Pulau Indah, Selangor. The report merely identified the anonymous buyers as “concerns ultimately controlled by Chinese state-owned enterprises”.
This is not the first time SST had carried out a hatchet stories which helped cover up some of the 1MDB’s financial shenanigans. When the Bandar Malaysia sale to an Iskandar Waterfront-led consortium was terminated out-of-the-blue by the Ministry of Finance, it was SST which created a media maelstorm by reporting on 9 May 2017 that “Government officials and financial executives close to the situation told The Straits Times that negotiations with the Dalian Wanda Group to take a central role as master developer have reached an advanced stage…”
“Malaysian government officials noted that the new deal would be substantially higher than the previous RM12.3 billion valuation tag for the entire project. According to financial executives familiar with ongoing talks, Wanda has proposed to use half of the development for tourism and entertainment-related ventures valued at roughly US$8 billion,” the Singapore paper added.
The above proved to be a hoax of course, because when Dato’ Seri Najib Razak met Wanda a week later, he came home empty-handed – without even a face-saving “Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)” signed.
The current SST report is similarly couched in the same language. SST claimed that “Malaysian government officials declined to identify the buyers in the real estate transactions but one financial executive close to the situation said that the equity interests in the 1MDB real estate entities were acquired by "concerns ultimately controlled by Chinese state-owned enterprises". The executive declined to elaborate.”
The SST report was inevitably picked up by nearly all local media outfits. This clearly served the interest of 1MDB which would want to avoid prickly questions on how they found the funds to repay IPIC.
The question really is, if 1MDB has really succeeded in disposing of its controversial properties in Pulau Indah and Penang to China-owned state enterprises, why is there absolute silence from official sources? Dato’ Seri Najib Razak and 1MDB would have been carrying out victory parades for proving their critics wrong, as they did in the past.
Surely if the companies owning these parcels of land were sold for billions of ringgit to foreign investors, from China or otherwise, official transactions would have taken place and the information would be publicly available.
More curiously, these parcels of land in Selangor and Penang were purchased by 1MDB for RM294 million and RM1.1 billion respectively. Critics were aplenty in citing that both parcels were purchased at inflated prices. However, even so, the combined purchase amounted to less than RM1.4 billion.
Hence if the SST report were to be true, then it begs the question as to which Chinese state-owned enterprises would pay an outrageous RM2.4 billion for these parcels, which in-turn allowed 1MDB to repay its second loan instalment to IPIC? Or is it more likely that it is another hoax to evade disclosing the fact that it was really the Ministry of Finance, which directly or indirectly, repaid both instalments amounting to US$1.24 billion to IPIC?
Monday, January 08, 2018
Ministry of Finance Bailout of 1MDB continues unabated with its latest acquisition of 106 Exchange Tower to be built in Tun Razak Exchange
The Edge reported yesterday of the Ministry of Finance’s takeover of the 106-storey 106 Exchange Tower through the company MKD Signature. The 3.42 acres of land for the project was previously acquired by Indonesian conglomerate, Mulia Group for the sum of RM665 million.
The 106-storey Exchange Tower was initially proof of 1MDB’s success with the TRX project as it was a wholly-owned foreign investment by Indonesia’s Mulia Group. However, news of the transfer of a majority stake ‘back’ to the Malaysian Government goes to prove that there is something extremely fishy going on.
Why is it even necessary for the Government to use tax-payers’ funds to get involved in another mega-property project? Didn’t the Second Finance Minister, Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani announced a Cabinet decision to freeze all high-end commercial and residential projects? Why is the Ministry of Finance participating in the aggravation of the property glut in the country?
More importantly, if Mulia Group had paid RM665 million for the land, the question is how much did the Ministry of Finance pay to acquire the 51% stake in the project?
The complete lack of transparency over the deal which would involve hundreds of millions of ringgit, possibly to the tune of billions, raises suspicions that it is really another one of the series of continued bailout of the debt-stricken 1MDB.
Was there for example, a secret ‘put option’ in the sale and purchase agreement between the Mulia Group and 1MDB, where the latter is obliged to buy back a majority stake from Mulia Group with a higher price at a later date? And because 1MDB obviously has no money to buy back the stake from Melia Group, was the Ministry of Finance was forced to step in to bailout 1MDB?
It should also be noted that this would be the second tract of 1MDB's TRX land that has been bought by MOF companies. It was previously disclosed in Parliament that MOF-owned company Aroma Teraju had purchased another tract of land at the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) development in 2015.
Last year, I had asked several times in Parliament for the land area and purchase price of the land by Aroma Teraju. However my question was repeatly shot down because of the purported confidentiality clause in the purchase agreement was with two companies wholly-owned by MOF.
Why hide behind the veil of secrecy when the parties involved are entirely owned by the Government? Is it because the Ministry of Finance will look utterly stupid for buying back tiny parcels of land back from 1MDB at sums astronomically higher than the RM230 million paid by 1MDB to acquire the 70 acres from the Government?
We call on MOF and 1MDB to confirm and disclose the details of the purchases of the land in TRX above. As wholly-owned companies under the Government, the public deserves to know what is being done with their own money.
The 106-storey Exchange Tower was initially proof of 1MDB’s success with the TRX project as it was a wholly-owned foreign investment by Indonesia’s Mulia Group. However, news of the transfer of a majority stake ‘back’ to the Malaysian Government goes to prove that there is something extremely fishy going on.
Why is it even necessary for the Government to use tax-payers’ funds to get involved in another mega-property project? Didn’t the Second Finance Minister, Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani announced a Cabinet decision to freeze all high-end commercial and residential projects? Why is the Ministry of Finance participating in the aggravation of the property glut in the country?
More importantly, if Mulia Group had paid RM665 million for the land, the question is how much did the Ministry of Finance pay to acquire the 51% stake in the project?
The complete lack of transparency over the deal which would involve hundreds of millions of ringgit, possibly to the tune of billions, raises suspicions that it is really another one of the series of continued bailout of the debt-stricken 1MDB.
Was there for example, a secret ‘put option’ in the sale and purchase agreement between the Mulia Group and 1MDB, where the latter is obliged to buy back a majority stake from Mulia Group with a higher price at a later date? And because 1MDB obviously has no money to buy back the stake from Melia Group, was the Ministry of Finance was forced to step in to bailout 1MDB?
It should also be noted that this would be the second tract of 1MDB's TRX land that has been bought by MOF companies. It was previously disclosed in Parliament that MOF-owned company Aroma Teraju had purchased another tract of land at the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) development in 2015.
Last year, I had asked several times in Parliament for the land area and purchase price of the land by Aroma Teraju. However my question was repeatly shot down because of the purported confidentiality clause in the purchase agreement was with two companies wholly-owned by MOF.
Why hide behind the veil of secrecy when the parties involved are entirely owned by the Government? Is it because the Ministry of Finance will look utterly stupid for buying back tiny parcels of land back from 1MDB at sums astronomically higher than the RM230 million paid by 1MDB to acquire the 70 acres from the Government?
We call on MOF and 1MDB to confirm and disclose the details of the purchases of the land in TRX above. As wholly-owned companies under the Government, the public deserves to know what is being done with their own money.
Wednesday, December 06, 2017
Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must summon the US Ambassador and file an official protest to his golf buddy, President Donald Trump against the US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions for disparaging and destroying Malaysia’s international reputation
US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions called the Malaysian 1MDB scandal “kleptocracy at its worst” at the Global Forum on Asset Recovery hosted by the World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. He informed the international audience that half of the US$3.5 billion in assets seized by the Department of Justice’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative was related to its suits on 1MDB.
He said that allegedly corrupt officials and their associates had reportedly used the 1MDB funds for a “lavish spending spree” such as US$200 million for real estate in South California and New York, US$130 million in artwork, US$100 million in an American music label and a US$265 million yacht.
1MDB officials allegedly laundered more than US$4.5 billion in total, he said, through a complex web of opaque transactions and shell companies with bank accounts in various countries such as Switzerland, Singapore, Luxembourg and the US.
These allegations, while not new, have taken a more serious turn as the United States Attorney-General has now made these allegations at the World Bank international conference.
The question now is whether our Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak will just let a foreign country disparage and destroy Malaysia’s international reputation and credibility? Is he not going to speak out to defend Malaysian’s honour? Does he think that the US Attorney-General’s speech will have no impact Malaysia’s attractiveness as a destination for tourism and investment?
We call upon the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to summon the United States Ambassador to express in the harshest possible terms our protest towards all the allegations made by the US Attorney-General. In fact, he should immediately file an official complaint with his golf-buddy, President Donald Trump and demand an apology from the United States government.
This week Dato’ Seri Najib is scheduled to address the UMNO General. There could not be a better opportunity for the Prime Minister to boast to his faithful that he has taken the firmest possible action against foreign powers bent on sabotaging Malaysia’s economy and progress.
Hence why is Dato’ Seri Najib Razak remaining quiet as a mouse? Is it because Jeff Sessions has merely stated what is the inconvenient truth for him and his administration?
In fact, the Government’s continued silence to the disparaging of Malaysia’s reputation and credibility by top Government leader overseas only serves to confirm that Dato’ Seri Najib Razak and his Government is guilty as charged – billions of dollars have been laundered by “corrupt officials and their associates”.
In that case, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must answer to every Malaysian as to why not a single person relating to the 1MDB scandal has been investigated and charged for these heinous crimes in Malaysia.
He said that allegedly corrupt officials and their associates had reportedly used the 1MDB funds for a “lavish spending spree” such as US$200 million for real estate in South California and New York, US$130 million in artwork, US$100 million in an American music label and a US$265 million yacht.
1MDB officials allegedly laundered more than US$4.5 billion in total, he said, through a complex web of opaque transactions and shell companies with bank accounts in various countries such as Switzerland, Singapore, Luxembourg and the US.
These allegations, while not new, have taken a more serious turn as the United States Attorney-General has now made these allegations at the World Bank international conference.
The question now is whether our Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak will just let a foreign country disparage and destroy Malaysia’s international reputation and credibility? Is he not going to speak out to defend Malaysian’s honour? Does he think that the US Attorney-General’s speech will have no impact Malaysia’s attractiveness as a destination for tourism and investment?
We call upon the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to summon the United States Ambassador to express in the harshest possible terms our protest towards all the allegations made by the US Attorney-General. In fact, he should immediately file an official complaint with his golf-buddy, President Donald Trump and demand an apology from the United States government.
This week Dato’ Seri Najib is scheduled to address the UMNO General. There could not be a better opportunity for the Prime Minister to boast to his faithful that he has taken the firmest possible action against foreign powers bent on sabotaging Malaysia’s economy and progress.
Hence why is Dato’ Seri Najib Razak remaining quiet as a mouse? Is it because Jeff Sessions has merely stated what is the inconvenient truth for him and his administration?
In fact, the Government’s continued silence to the disparaging of Malaysia’s reputation and credibility by top Government leader overseas only serves to confirm that Dato’ Seri Najib Razak and his Government is guilty as charged – billions of dollars have been laundered by “corrupt officials and their associates”.
In that case, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must answer to every Malaysian as to why not a single person relating to the 1MDB scandal has been investigated and charged for these heinous crimes in Malaysia.
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Treasurer-General Tan Sri Irwan Serigar’s continued stalling over decision to appoint Bandar Malaysia master developer exposes that Ministry of Finance has not received any firm bids for the project
Ministry of Finance (MOF) Treasurer-General and Bandar Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Irwan Serigar continued to ask Malaysians to wait and see for the outcome of Bandar Malaysia’s call for a new master developer. When launching online radio station eFM yesterday, Irwan told reporters to “wait, the time will come,” when asked about the status of Bandar Malaysia’s call.
The call for a master developer followed the collapse of the RM7.41 billion deal with a consortium led by Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) to acquire a 60% stake in Bandar Malaysia. Following that collapse, Bandar Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., the wholly-owned MOF Inc. company and former 1MDB subsidiary, announced that it was going to be opening a tender for a master developer for the Bandar Malaysia project.
The new tender was going to include more stringent criteria including that the developer needed to be an affiliate of a Fortune 500 company and needed to have cumulatively generated RM50 billion in revenue in the last 3 consecutive years.
When the RFP was first announced in May, the new Bandar Malaysia chairman and MoF Secretary-General Irwan Serigar Abdullah said that the RFP deadline would close on June 30 and the final decision would be made by July 14.
On August 23, Tan Sri Irwan said that 6 companies had ‘expressed interest’ and had visited the site. “We took them for a site visit and they need to submit their proposal by the end of this month,” he said.
The Malaysian Reserve then reported on October 31 that Tan Sri Irwan said the announcement for the master developer would be “coming soon, coming soon”.
On November 8, I had asked the Minister of Finance to state how many companies had submitted finalised proposals for the re-tender of the Bandar Malaysia project, how many of those companies were Fortune 500 companies and when the tender decision would be announced.
He again merely responded that 8 companies which had met the criteria had “expressed their interest” in becoming the master developer.
It has now become quite obvious that since June this year, the only progress we have made is purportedly 6 to 8 companies have “expressed interest” in Bandar Malaysia despite a decision which was to be “made by July 14”.
We call upon Tan Sri Irwan Serigar to confirm if in fact, there have been no firm bids tabled by any so-called Fortune 500 company to acquire and develop Bandar Malaysia, especially not at the astronomical price demanded by the Ministry of Finance.
The call for a master developer followed the collapse of the RM7.41 billion deal with a consortium led by Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) to acquire a 60% stake in Bandar Malaysia. Following that collapse, Bandar Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., the wholly-owned MOF Inc. company and former 1MDB subsidiary, announced that it was going to be opening a tender for a master developer for the Bandar Malaysia project.
The new tender was going to include more stringent criteria including that the developer needed to be an affiliate of a Fortune 500 company and needed to have cumulatively generated RM50 billion in revenue in the last 3 consecutive years.
When the RFP was first announced in May, the new Bandar Malaysia chairman and MoF Secretary-General Irwan Serigar Abdullah said that the RFP deadline would close on June 30 and the final decision would be made by July 14.
On August 23, Tan Sri Irwan said that 6 companies had ‘expressed interest’ and had visited the site. “We took them for a site visit and they need to submit their proposal by the end of this month,” he said.
The Malaysian Reserve then reported on October 31 that Tan Sri Irwan said the announcement for the master developer would be “coming soon, coming soon”.
On November 8, I had asked the Minister of Finance to state how many companies had submitted finalised proposals for the re-tender of the Bandar Malaysia project, how many of those companies were Fortune 500 companies and when the tender decision would be announced.
He again merely responded that 8 companies which had met the criteria had “expressed their interest” in becoming the master developer.
It has now become quite obvious that since June this year, the only progress we have made is purportedly 6 to 8 companies have “expressed interest” in Bandar Malaysia despite a decision which was to be “made by July 14”.
We call upon Tan Sri Irwan Serigar to confirm if in fact, there have been no firm bids tabled by any so-called Fortune 500 company to acquire and develop Bandar Malaysia, especially not at the astronomical price demanded by the Ministry of Finance.
Friday, November 24, 2017
Ku Nan demonstrates “Malaysia Boleh” spirit by declaring Bandar Malaysia plans ‘approved’ even before master developer selection, to circumvent Cabinet luxury development ban.
Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor has confirmed yesterday that the 1MDB-linked Bandar Malaysia and TRX would not be affected by the freeze on property approvals for condominiums, serviced apartments, offices and shopping complexes price above RM1 million.
He was responding to a question by PJ Selatan MP, Hee Loy Sian, when he said that the two projects had already received approval ‘in principle’ and could not be stopped from developing.
It is quite clear here that the government’s only principle here is to protect the interests of 1MDB. TRX and Bandar Malaysia are two of 1MDB’s largest assets that need to be developed if the fund wants any chance of staying afloat. They are also two of the biggest slated development projects in KL.
The amazing thing is, the Ministry of Finance has not even declared a winner to the tender for the master developer of Bandar Malaysia. The latest response from the Ministry of Finance last week is that there are 8 companies which have “expressed interest” in developing the massive 486-acres project. DBKL Mayor Tan Sri Mohd Amin had himself told Malaysiakini that they had yet to receive an application from Bandar Malaysia.
If exemptions from the freeze can be given just because of approvals had been given ‘in principle’, what worth is the freeze at all? Does this mean that other ‘planned’ high-end developments, which have yet to submit their planning applications, will also get exemptions?
These exemptions raise two worrying questions about the government’s planned freeze on high-end developments.
Firstly, it would mean that the effectiveness of the supposed ban on high-end project would be severely diluted. Bank Negara’s report showed just how grave the supply and demand imbalance was, projecting 1-in-3 office spaces being vacant in the Klang Valley by 2021, if measures aren’t taken to control it. If this freeze on high-end developments is to be taken seriously at all, the government has to make sure it is fairly enforced across the board.
And secondly, 1MDB gets the special treatment which discriminates against all private businesses.
As per my previous statements on this issue, I reiterate that the purported ‘blanket ban’ against high-end projects with unit values above RM1 million is a hare-brained knee-jerk reaction which is faulty due to the unfair and substantial exemptions granted above. In addition, the policy itself will not only fail to achieve its objectives because it is not properly targeted, it will create greater distortions in the market as well as turn away both domestic and foreign investors.
He was responding to a question by PJ Selatan MP, Hee Loy Sian, when he said that the two projects had already received approval ‘in principle’ and could not be stopped from developing.
It is quite clear here that the government’s only principle here is to protect the interests of 1MDB. TRX and Bandar Malaysia are two of 1MDB’s largest assets that need to be developed if the fund wants any chance of staying afloat. They are also two of the biggest slated development projects in KL.
The amazing thing is, the Ministry of Finance has not even declared a winner to the tender for the master developer of Bandar Malaysia. The latest response from the Ministry of Finance last week is that there are 8 companies which have “expressed interest” in developing the massive 486-acres project. DBKL Mayor Tan Sri Mohd Amin had himself told Malaysiakini that they had yet to receive an application from Bandar Malaysia.
If exemptions from the freeze can be given just because of approvals had been given ‘in principle’, what worth is the freeze at all? Does this mean that other ‘planned’ high-end developments, which have yet to submit their planning applications, will also get exemptions?
These exemptions raise two worrying questions about the government’s planned freeze on high-end developments.
Firstly, it would mean that the effectiveness of the supposed ban on high-end project would be severely diluted. Bank Negara’s report showed just how grave the supply and demand imbalance was, projecting 1-in-3 office spaces being vacant in the Klang Valley by 2021, if measures aren’t taken to control it. If this freeze on high-end developments is to be taken seriously at all, the government has to make sure it is fairly enforced across the board.
And secondly, 1MDB gets the special treatment which discriminates against all private businesses.
As per my previous statements on this issue, I reiterate that the purported ‘blanket ban’ against high-end projects with unit values above RM1 million is a hare-brained knee-jerk reaction which is faulty due to the unfair and substantial exemptions granted above. In addition, the policy itself will not only fail to achieve its objectives because it is not properly targeted, it will create greater distortions in the market as well as turn away both domestic and foreign investors.
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Why are 1MDB-related projects given special exemptions despite Cabinet blanket ban on luxury property projects above RM1 million in unit values?
Last week, Dato’ Seri Johari Abdul Ghani announced the Cabinet decision on a “temporary ban” approvals for shopping complexes, offices, serviced apartments and luxury condominiums priced over RM1 million effective November 1.
The freeze came after Bank Negara’s report on the substantial supply and demand imbalance within the country’s property market. The report found that new property launches were skewed towards the high-end sector of the market.
Particularly in the Klang Valley, the report found that office vacancy rates had increased from 20.9% in Q1 2015 to 23.6% in Q1 2017. The situation is only set to get worse as there is an incoming supply of 38 million square feet of office space.
It has also been confirmed in various news reports that the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has received the above directive.
However, we are not sure if we should be shocked that the Mayor, Tan Sri Mohd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz announced yesterday that the prospective single largest high-end property development project ever in Malaysia – Bandar Malaysia is exempted from the ban.
Malaysiakini reported that although the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) had yet to receive any application regarding the project, Mohd Amin said the freeze on approvals for condominiums, serviced apartments, offices and shopping complexes priced at RM1 million and above is not a blanket ban.
“We haven’t received any application from Bandar Malaysia. No, because it is not a blanket (ban). On certain developments, it can be approved,” he told Malaysiakini.
At the same time, it was announced yesterday that IJM would be building a new RM500 million office tower at Tun Razak Exchange after acquiring TRX City subsidiary Fairview Valley Sdn Bhd. Will this new tower, which will have a gross floor area of 560,000 square feet also be exempted from the ban?
Due to the size of these 1MDB-related projects, they will certainly exacerbate the property over-supply situation in the Klang Valley and effectively blunt the effectiveness of the Cabinet decision to ban high-end development projects.
More critically, if the 486 acres Bandar Malaysia and the 70 acres Tun Razak Exchange projects receive automatic exemptions from the ban – how is that fair to the rest of the property development industry in the country?
Clearly the “temporary ban” is a hare-brained which will fail to actually solve the “supply-demand imbalances” in our property sector. Worse, the investment and business community will only see the inconsistency and unfair policies imposed by the Government. Can they be blamed if both the domestic and foreign investors take their money and invest in other countries?
The freeze came after Bank Negara’s report on the substantial supply and demand imbalance within the country’s property market. The report found that new property launches were skewed towards the high-end sector of the market.
Particularly in the Klang Valley, the report found that office vacancy rates had increased from 20.9% in Q1 2015 to 23.6% in Q1 2017. The situation is only set to get worse as there is an incoming supply of 38 million square feet of office space.
It has also been confirmed in various news reports that the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has received the above directive.
However, we are not sure if we should be shocked that the Mayor, Tan Sri Mohd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz announced yesterday that the prospective single largest high-end property development project ever in Malaysia – Bandar Malaysia is exempted from the ban.
Malaysiakini reported that although the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) had yet to receive any application regarding the project, Mohd Amin said the freeze on approvals for condominiums, serviced apartments, offices and shopping complexes priced at RM1 million and above is not a blanket ban.
“We haven’t received any application from Bandar Malaysia. No, because it is not a blanket (ban). On certain developments, it can be approved,” he told Malaysiakini.
At the same time, it was announced yesterday that IJM would be building a new RM500 million office tower at Tun Razak Exchange after acquiring TRX City subsidiary Fairview Valley Sdn Bhd. Will this new tower, which will have a gross floor area of 560,000 square feet also be exempted from the ban?
Due to the size of these 1MDB-related projects, they will certainly exacerbate the property over-supply situation in the Klang Valley and effectively blunt the effectiveness of the Cabinet decision to ban high-end development projects.
More critically, if the 486 acres Bandar Malaysia and the 70 acres Tun Razak Exchange projects receive automatic exemptions from the ban – how is that fair to the rest of the property development industry in the country?
Clearly the “temporary ban” is a hare-brained which will fail to actually solve the “supply-demand imbalances” in our property sector. Worse, the investment and business community will only see the inconsistency and unfair policies imposed by the Government. Can they be blamed if both the domestic and foreign investors take their money and invest in other countries?
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
The Minister of Finance should stop telling lies and giving excuses, and admit that Malaysians will never get to see any more audited financial statements for 1MDB and SRC International
Former Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had asked the Minister of Finance for the status of the much delayed financial statements for 1MDB.
In a parliamentary reply dated 16 November, the Minister of Finance responded that “on July 8, 2015, the police seized various original documents from 1MDB’s office. 1MDB’s management has contacted the police regarding the return of the company’s documents, but till today, the original documents haven’t been returned to the company”.
Therefore, since the last financial statement prepared by Deloitte Malaysia for the period ending March 2014, there has been no official audits conducted for the scandal-ridden company. Worse, last year, Deloitte Malaysia has withdrawn its endorsement for the March 2013 and March 2014 financial statements.
This means that 1MDB has since March 2012, or more than 5 years ago, 1MDB has not filed any financial statements which have been endorsed by an external auditor.
This unprecedented delay was despite repeated deadline extensions granted to 1MDB by the Companies Commission of Malaysian (SSM) to file its annual reports. And now the Minister of Finance tells us that it has completely given up and said that it cannot even provide a deadline.
If the Minister of Finance is indeed serious about 1MDB completing its audit process, why hasn’t he, who is also the Prime Minister ‘discuss’ this matter with the Royal Malaysian Police to work out an arrangement for the audit to be carried out?
Surely it cannot be too hard for investigators to allow the auditors to, at the very least, sight the documents needed? Moreover, the police have said that their investigation in 1MDB is now concluded and that they have returned their investigation papers to the Attorney-General’s Chambers. So why exactly are investigators still holding to these documents if it is necessary for the proper auditing of the company?
We are not asking for the Police to return, relinquish or destroy possible evidence in its hands. We are merely asking for the Police to allow the statutory audit of 1MDB to be carried out. The audit is of great urgency and importance as it will confirm if the allegations of billions of ringgit being misappropriated to fictitious investment accounts in various overseas institutions from Singapore to the British Virgin Islands and a little-known island-state of Curacao in South America.
It should be noted that even when the Auditor-General and the Public Accounts Committee was investigating 1MDB prior to 2016, 1MDB refused to even supply its management accounts, despite being requested to do so.
The Finance Minister’s complete lackadaisical attitude towards the audit of a state-owned company with nearly RM40 billion in debts shows that it is a cover up to prevent the truth from being discovered.
The fact that 1MDB cannot produce any audited financial statements since March 2012 further rubbishes Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s pre-budget defence and praise of 1MDB, and the audacious claim that 1MDB will soon “return to profitability”. It can’t even produce its accounts, what profit is the Prime Minister talking about?
In a parliamentary reply dated 16 November, the Minister of Finance responded that “on July 8, 2015, the police seized various original documents from 1MDB’s office. 1MDB’s management has contacted the police regarding the return of the company’s documents, but till today, the original documents haven’t been returned to the company”.
Therefore, since the last financial statement prepared by Deloitte Malaysia for the period ending March 2014, there has been no official audits conducted for the scandal-ridden company. Worse, last year, Deloitte Malaysia has withdrawn its endorsement for the March 2013 and March 2014 financial statements.
This means that 1MDB has since March 2012, or more than 5 years ago, 1MDB has not filed any financial statements which have been endorsed by an external auditor.
This unprecedented delay was despite repeated deadline extensions granted to 1MDB by the Companies Commission of Malaysian (SSM) to file its annual reports. And now the Minister of Finance tells us that it has completely given up and said that it cannot even provide a deadline.
If the Minister of Finance is indeed serious about 1MDB completing its audit process, why hasn’t he, who is also the Prime Minister ‘discuss’ this matter with the Royal Malaysian Police to work out an arrangement for the audit to be carried out?
Surely it cannot be too hard for investigators to allow the auditors to, at the very least, sight the documents needed? Moreover, the police have said that their investigation in 1MDB is now concluded and that they have returned their investigation papers to the Attorney-General’s Chambers. So why exactly are investigators still holding to these documents if it is necessary for the proper auditing of the company?
We are not asking for the Police to return, relinquish or destroy possible evidence in its hands. We are merely asking for the Police to allow the statutory audit of 1MDB to be carried out. The audit is of great urgency and importance as it will confirm if the allegations of billions of ringgit being misappropriated to fictitious investment accounts in various overseas institutions from Singapore to the British Virgin Islands and a little-known island-state of Curacao in South America.
It should be noted that even when the Auditor-General and the Public Accounts Committee was investigating 1MDB prior to 2016, 1MDB refused to even supply its management accounts, despite being requested to do so.
The Finance Minister’s complete lackadaisical attitude towards the audit of a state-owned company with nearly RM40 billion in debts shows that it is a cover up to prevent the truth from being discovered.
The fact that 1MDB cannot produce any audited financial statements since March 2012 further rubbishes Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s pre-budget defence and praise of 1MDB, and the audacious claim that 1MDB will soon “return to profitability”. It can’t even produce its accounts, what profit is the Prime Minister talking about?
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Why is Malaysia the most “man man” (slowly, slowly) in the world when the rest of the world have been very “kuai kuai” (quickly, quickly) in persecuting those who have been complicit in stealing billions of dollars from Malaysian tax-payers?
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Razali Ibrahim urged patience with regard to the ongoing investigation into 1MDB, even using words in Chinese to stress his point.
"In Chinese, we say man man lah, man man (slowly lah, slowly). We will wait for the (outcome of the) matter, which is under investigation by the relevant authorities. God willing, the truth will be revealed," Razali told the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday, 14 November.
The government treating 1MDB as a joke just shows how ridiculously selective investigations in Malaysia are. It is obnoxious to expect Malaysians to wait even longer for a decision on a case involving multi-billion dollars that’s already been ongoing for years.
Worse, other countries have already investigated, charged and even jailed perpetrators involved in the 1MDB, while Malaysian authorities continue to drag their feet on the matter.
How much slower does the Deputy Minister expect investigations to slow down to?
His statement lays bare the sheer double standards of the government and authorities when it comes to investigating politically-linked scandals. If it’s an Opposition or parties critical of the Government, the authorities act with lightning speed. However, when the tables are turned, authorities are suddenly asked to go through things slowly.
The first police reports filed against 1MDB were done in 2014. In June 2015, the Home Minister said in Parliament that investigation papers had been referred to the Attorney- General in March. That was over two years ago, and the Attorney-General and the police are still passing the investigation papers between each other.
By comparison, the investigation into Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, started with a report to MACC on March 18 2016. Investigation papers were submitted to the AG in May and an arrest by MACC was made in June. It took MACC just two months to investigate and the AG just one month to decide on prosecution despite Lim Guan Eng having presented evidence to the contrary of the charges.
Why don’t we see this level of efficiency when it comes to scandals involving tens of billions of ringgit which implicated even the Prime Minister and his family?
Dismissive comments such as in the Deputy Minister’s speech prove just how little the government cares about upholding justice and protecting the interest of ordinary Malaysians. With billions of Malaysian public funds gone and allegedly funding the lavish lifestyles of others, we need to ask who the government are really defending – the people or crooks who are in power?
"In Chinese, we say man man lah, man man (slowly lah, slowly). We will wait for the (outcome of the) matter, which is under investigation by the relevant authorities. God willing, the truth will be revealed," Razali told the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday, 14 November.
The government treating 1MDB as a joke just shows how ridiculously selective investigations in Malaysia are. It is obnoxious to expect Malaysians to wait even longer for a decision on a case involving multi-billion dollars that’s already been ongoing for years.
Worse, other countries have already investigated, charged and even jailed perpetrators involved in the 1MDB, while Malaysian authorities continue to drag their feet on the matter.
How much slower does the Deputy Minister expect investigations to slow down to?
His statement lays bare the sheer double standards of the government and authorities when it comes to investigating politically-linked scandals. If it’s an Opposition or parties critical of the Government, the authorities act with lightning speed. However, when the tables are turned, authorities are suddenly asked to go through things slowly.
The first police reports filed against 1MDB were done in 2014. In June 2015, the Home Minister said in Parliament that investigation papers had been referred to the Attorney- General in March. That was over two years ago, and the Attorney-General and the police are still passing the investigation papers between each other.
By comparison, the investigation into Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, started with a report to MACC on March 18 2016. Investigation papers were submitted to the AG in May and an arrest by MACC was made in June. It took MACC just two months to investigate and the AG just one month to decide on prosecution despite Lim Guan Eng having presented evidence to the contrary of the charges.
Why don’t we see this level of efficiency when it comes to scandals involving tens of billions of ringgit which implicated even the Prime Minister and his family?
Dismissive comments such as in the Deputy Minister’s speech prove just how little the government cares about upholding justice and protecting the interest of ordinary Malaysians. With billions of Malaysian public funds gone and allegedly funding the lavish lifestyles of others, we need to ask who the government are really defending – the people or crooks who are in power?
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
The MACC must not abscond from its constitutional duty to investigate the ample hard evidence of corruption, abuse of power and criminal breach of trust in 1MDB as confirmed by its own former senior officer
The Free Malaysia Today (FMT) reported on 10 November that ex-senior Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) officer, Ramli Manan said there is ample evidence for the anti-graft agency to investigate the financial fiasco involving state investor 1MDB.
Ramli Manan said investigators had only to look into 1MDB-related court proceedings in Singapore and the United States’ Department of Justice (DoJ) reports to assist them in their probes.
Singapore’s investigation into the fund has resulted in the termination of BSI Bank’s license and the arrest of its bankers for assisting in laundering of 1MDB funds. Even as we speak, the Singaporean investigations still continue, with police now examining the role of Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs’ in setting up fraudulent bond offerings for the fund. The US Department of Justice investigations more explicitly state their investigations are aimed at recovering assets bought using funds laundered from Malaysia’s 1MDB.
“The evidence there is glaring and it could be of great assistance to MACC officers,” said Ramli, who retired as director of the Sabah ACA.
He further confirmed my criticism of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) last week that the MACC and the Royal Malaysian Police have different responsibilities and jurisdiction. Ramli told FMT that “it is only the MACC that has the expertise and experience to carry out investigation on graft and abuse of power. Police only can probe Penal Code offences.”
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in-charge of Integrity, Datuk Paul Low had on 1 November responded to me in Parliament that “investigations weren’t carried out because of existing investigations being done by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Bank Negara and the Police.”
The statement by the former Sabah ACA Chief only goes to prove that there could not be a more shameless and irresponsible reply from the Minister and the Government.
The MACC is clearly and willfully choosing to ignore readily-available evidence in order to protect those implicated in the multi-billion dollar scandal, including the Prime Minister and his family members.
We’d like to remind the MACC again of their role as an independent commission. Its actions should never be dictated or influenced by the actions of other authorities or agencies. To prove that the MACC is indeed independent and not cowardly, it should immediately kick off its investigations into the massive shenanigans in the company and ensure the culprits who have caused billions of ringgit in losses pay for their heinous crimes.
Ramli Manan said investigators had only to look into 1MDB-related court proceedings in Singapore and the United States’ Department of Justice (DoJ) reports to assist them in their probes.
Singapore’s investigation into the fund has resulted in the termination of BSI Bank’s license and the arrest of its bankers for assisting in laundering of 1MDB funds. Even as we speak, the Singaporean investigations still continue, with police now examining the role of Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs’ in setting up fraudulent bond offerings for the fund. The US Department of Justice investigations more explicitly state their investigations are aimed at recovering assets bought using funds laundered from Malaysia’s 1MDB.
“The evidence there is glaring and it could be of great assistance to MACC officers,” said Ramli, who retired as director of the Sabah ACA.
He further confirmed my criticism of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) last week that the MACC and the Royal Malaysian Police have different responsibilities and jurisdiction. Ramli told FMT that “it is only the MACC that has the expertise and experience to carry out investigation on graft and abuse of power. Police only can probe Penal Code offences.”
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in-charge of Integrity, Datuk Paul Low had on 1 November responded to me in Parliament that “investigations weren’t carried out because of existing investigations being done by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Bank Negara and the Police.”
The statement by the former Sabah ACA Chief only goes to prove that there could not be a more shameless and irresponsible reply from the Minister and the Government.
The MACC is clearly and willfully choosing to ignore readily-available evidence in order to protect those implicated in the multi-billion dollar scandal, including the Prime Minister and his family members.
We’d like to remind the MACC again of their role as an independent commission. Its actions should never be dictated or influenced by the actions of other authorities or agencies. To prove that the MACC is indeed independent and not cowardly, it should immediately kick off its investigations into the massive shenanigans in the company and ensure the culprits who have caused billions of ringgit in losses pay for their heinous crimes.
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water confirms that 1MDB had no role in reducing electricity tariffs or costs, proving PM’s claim of massive savings completely baseless.
In his blog post prior to the Budget 2018 announcement, the Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak had made the claim that 1MDB’s involvement in the renegotiation of lopsided Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) had resulted in massive savings for Malaysians. He said that 1MDB’s participation in the energy industry had saved the country RM200 billion over the next 20 years.
However, the Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water in his winding-up speech in Parliament on 9 November, said that 1MDB’s ownership of Tanjong Energy, Genting Sanyen and Jimah had nothing to do with the increase or decrease of electricity tariff rates or costs because 1MDB maintained the rates as stipulated by the final sales and purchase agreements.
Dato’ Seri Maximus Ongkili has now effectively clarified in Parliament that Najib’s claims are completely ridiculous.
Not only has the Minister stated without doubt that 1MDB’s participation has had no effect on the tariff rates or energy costs, he added that the cost savings that Najib has accredited to 1MDB have nothing to do with them either.
Ongkili said in his speech that the lower capacity rate financial (CRF) of RM6kw per month for 48 months, which resulted in RM1.6 billion in savings was a condition in the tender set by the Energy Commission. It was certainly not because of 1MDB’s noble generosity.
We are thankful that Dato’ Seri Najib finally admitted that those independent power producers (IPPs) were allowed to profit astronomically from the BN government of which he was part of before. However, we can now also confirm that 1MDB has played no role to atone for the the above injustice.
Malaysians haven’t enjoyed a single sen in benefit as electricity tariffs have only increased and not decreased since 1MDB started acquiring these IPPs. Worse, the 1MDB’s RM12.1 billion-misadventure in the power sector resulted in multi-billion ringgit losses when it was forced to dispose of its entire energy interests to a China outfit for a mere RM9.83 billion.
It is time for Dato' Seri Najib Razak to face the facts and deal with the billions of ringgit of losses and damage that 1MDB has caused to the tax-payers in our power sector, amongst other billions of ringgit of losses.
However, the Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water in his winding-up speech in Parliament on 9 November, said that 1MDB’s ownership of Tanjong Energy, Genting Sanyen and Jimah had nothing to do with the increase or decrease of electricity tariff rates or costs because 1MDB maintained the rates as stipulated by the final sales and purchase agreements.
Dato’ Seri Maximus Ongkili has now effectively clarified in Parliament that Najib’s claims are completely ridiculous.
Not only has the Minister stated without doubt that 1MDB’s participation has had no effect on the tariff rates or energy costs, he added that the cost savings that Najib has accredited to 1MDB have nothing to do with them either.
Ongkili said in his speech that the lower capacity rate financial (CRF) of RM6kw per month for 48 months, which resulted in RM1.6 billion in savings was a condition in the tender set by the Energy Commission. It was certainly not because of 1MDB’s noble generosity.
We are thankful that Dato’ Seri Najib finally admitted that those independent power producers (IPPs) were allowed to profit astronomically from the BN government of which he was part of before. However, we can now also confirm that 1MDB has played no role to atone for the the above injustice.
Malaysians haven’t enjoyed a single sen in benefit as electricity tariffs have only increased and not decreased since 1MDB started acquiring these IPPs. Worse, the 1MDB’s RM12.1 billion-misadventure in the power sector resulted in multi-billion ringgit losses when it was forced to dispose of its entire energy interests to a China outfit for a mere RM9.83 billion.
It is time for Dato' Seri Najib Razak to face the facts and deal with the billions of ringgit of losses and damage that 1MDB has caused to the tax-payers in our power sector, amongst other billions of ringgit of losses.
Wednesday, November 08, 2017
Another ‘top secret’ 1MDB bailout by 1MDB via TRX land buyback by the Ministry of Finance
During the last parliamentary session, I had asked the Minister of Finance what is the cost and size of the land in Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) which its wholly-owned subsidiary, Aroma Teraju Sdn Bhd acquired from 1MDB in 2015.
The reply which I had received from the Dato’ Seri Najib Razak on 31 July, was that the information was protected by a confidentiality clause between the buyer and the seller.
The answer is ridiculous because both entities are wholly-owned by the Ministry of Finance, which in turn is accountable to both the Parliament and the public at large, and hence such information should never be a secret. This is especially since the price of a piece of land is in no way a threat to national security, and the information is certainly not protected by the Official Secrets Act.
Therefore, for the current sitting, I had asked why the land size and price for the purchase of Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) land by MOF-owned Aroma Teraju from 1MDB cannot be disclosed even though both companies were wholly-owned subsidiaries of MOF.
Dato’ Seri Najib Razak responded by saying this was because of the agreement’s confidentiality clause to protect the commercial considerations of both parties. He goes on to say that these terms are consistent with the key terms used in the market among other similar transactions.
The Minister chose to ignore is that both Aroma Teraju and 1MDB are wholly-owned by MOF. What is the purpose of this secrecy when both parties in the agreement are owned by the Government?
There is only one reason for invoking this confidentiality clause, and it has nothing to with the purported “commercial considerations”. It is to cover up the fact that MoF paid over-the-top to buy back a fraction of the prime land it had sold at bargain basement prices to 1MDB in 2010.
Based on the 2011 1MDB Financial Statements, the 70 acre TRX land was acquired from the Government at the value RM194 million, or approximately RM64 per square feet in 2010.
However, in the same year that Aroma Teraju acquired the above-mentioned piece of land from 1MDB, the latter also sold other parcels of TRX land to other government related institutions. Lembaga Tabung Haji acquired 1.6 acres for RM188.5 million or more than RM2,800psf. Affin Bank, a subsidiary of Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT), acquired 1.25 acres for RM255 million or nearly an eye-popping RM4,700psf.
If Aroma Teraju paid any where near the prices paid by Tabung Haji or Affin Bank, it would mean that Malaysian tax-payers would be been ripped off beyond their wildest imagination. Very simply, 1MDB purchased land from the Government at RM64psf and sold a fraction of the piece of undeveloped land back to the Government five years later at an exhorbitant thousands of ringgit per square feet.
I challenge the 1MDB, Arul Kanda or the Finance Minister to deny my allegations with facts and figures. Otherwise, it would merely confirm that the secrecy over a simple sales and purchase agreement between two government entities is really to cover up another one of the daylight robberies against the Malaysian tax-payers to bail out the debt-stricken 1MDB.
The reply which I had received from the Dato’ Seri Najib Razak on 31 July, was that the information was protected by a confidentiality clause between the buyer and the seller.
The answer is ridiculous because both entities are wholly-owned by the Ministry of Finance, which in turn is accountable to both the Parliament and the public at large, and hence such information should never be a secret. This is especially since the price of a piece of land is in no way a threat to national security, and the information is certainly not protected by the Official Secrets Act.
Therefore, for the current sitting, I had asked why the land size and price for the purchase of Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) land by MOF-owned Aroma Teraju from 1MDB cannot be disclosed even though both companies were wholly-owned subsidiaries of MOF.
Tony Pua minta Menteri Kewangan menyatakan apa sebabnya keluasan dan harga pembelian tanah Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) oleh syarikat Aroma Teraju daripada 1MDB tidak boleh diumumkan walaupun kedua-dua syarikat tersebut merupakan anak syarikat milik penuh Kementerian KewanganOnce again, in the reply dated 6 November 2017, I received utter nonsense from the Finance Minister which justified his being awarded “Asia’s Worst Finance Minister 2016” by FinanceAsia.
Dato’ Seri Najib Razak responded by saying this was because of the agreement’s confidentiality clause to protect the commercial considerations of both parties. He goes on to say that these terms are consistent with the key terms used in the market among other similar transactions.
The Minister chose to ignore is that both Aroma Teraju and 1MDB are wholly-owned by MOF. What is the purpose of this secrecy when both parties in the agreement are owned by the Government?
There is only one reason for invoking this confidentiality clause, and it has nothing to with the purported “commercial considerations”. It is to cover up the fact that MoF paid over-the-top to buy back a fraction of the prime land it had sold at bargain basement prices to 1MDB in 2010.
Based on the 2011 1MDB Financial Statements, the 70 acre TRX land was acquired from the Government at the value RM194 million, or approximately RM64 per square feet in 2010.
However, in the same year that Aroma Teraju acquired the above-mentioned piece of land from 1MDB, the latter also sold other parcels of TRX land to other government related institutions. Lembaga Tabung Haji acquired 1.6 acres for RM188.5 million or more than RM2,800psf. Affin Bank, a subsidiary of Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT), acquired 1.25 acres for RM255 million or nearly an eye-popping RM4,700psf.
If Aroma Teraju paid any where near the prices paid by Tabung Haji or Affin Bank, it would mean that Malaysian tax-payers would be been ripped off beyond their wildest imagination. Very simply, 1MDB purchased land from the Government at RM64psf and sold a fraction of the piece of undeveloped land back to the Government five years later at an exhorbitant thousands of ringgit per square feet.
I challenge the 1MDB, Arul Kanda or the Finance Minister to deny my allegations with facts and figures. Otherwise, it would merely confirm that the secrecy over a simple sales and purchase agreement between two government entities is really to cover up another one of the daylight robberies against the Malaysian tax-payers to bail out the debt-stricken 1MDB.
Tuesday, November 07, 2017
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission needs to grow a spine and really stand up to corruption.
I had asked in Parliament why the MACC had announced in June that it would not be carrying out investigations regarding the misappropriation of funds and abuse of power in the 1MDB scandal.
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in-charge of Integrity, Datuk Paul Low replied on 1 November that “investigations weren’t carried out because of existing investigations being done by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Bank Negara and the Police.”
There could not be a more shameless and irresponsible reply from the Minister and the Government.
The PAC – which barely scratched the surface of the 1MDB scandal, has no prosecutorial powers. Bank Negara Malaysia, on the other hand, was investigating 1MDB purely from the Financial Services Act and certainly did not deal with the parties who had profited from the scandal.
At the same time, while the Police may have been investigating the criminal elements in 1MDB, the MACC has powers, laws and jurisdictions which are completely different from the Police to tackle corruption cases.
That was the whole point of the Parliament passing the MACC Act in the first place, so that there is a dedicated and independent commission to tackle the scourge of corruption and not let the burden be shouldered by the Royal Malaysian Police. What type “independent commission” worth its salt is MACC, if it leaves investigations, especially a scandal of such scale to other agencies?
In January this year, MACC commissioner Datuk Dzulkifly Ahmad warned corrupt politicians to “be careful”. He said he wasn’t afraid of protected individuals and would launch investigations without fear or favour. “Just you wait,” he had warned politicians.
Why is the MACC and Datuk Dzulkifly Ahmad, after all its showboating, so afraid of investigating the country’s biggest and most blatant corruption scandal?
Malaysians have been waiting long for MACC to launch its investigations into 1MDB especially after similar investigations have already begun in the US, Switzerland and Singapore. Just this weekend, even 1MDB-linked Prince Turki of Saudi Arabia was hauled up as part of an anti-corruption sweep in his own Kingdom.
In Malaysia, multiple reports have been lodged with the MACC regarding the 1MDB scandal. These included reports filed in December 2014 by then UMNO Batu Kawan Division Deputy Chief Datuk Khairuddin Abu Hassan and more recently, a Pakatan Harapan Youth-linked NGO in July this year. Hence it is a serious breach of MACC’s duty for failing to look into complaints of corruption.
These submitted reports were to be evaluated before the Commission’s Information Evaluation Committee to determine whether there were elements of corruption or not. If elements of corruption are found, it is imperative that an MACC investigation is opened before being referred to the AG for legal prosecution.
Was the above process conveniently ignored in MACC’s special treatment for 1MDB? Was this a condition for Datuk Dzulkifly Ahmad to be rapidly promoted to be appointed, less than 2 years ago, to be the Chief Commissioner in the first place?
It is preposterous for an independent commission like MACC to pass on its investigation to other agencies. Each authority has a different mandate to investigate, so it is entirely cowardly for MACC to turn a blind eye and let other agencies look into it.
Until the MACC finally grows a spine and properly considers reports against 1MDB, the commissioner's boastful warnings will remain in Malaysians’ eyes as baseless rhetoric.
Tony Pua meminta Perdana Menteri menyatakan apakah sebabnya Ketua Pesuruhjaya Suruhanjaya Pencegah Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) mengumumkan pada bulan Jun 2017 bahawa pihak SPRM tidak akan menjalankan siasatan ke atas ke penyelewengan dan penyalahgunaan kuasa dalam skandal 1MDB?
The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in-charge of Integrity, Datuk Paul Low replied on 1 November that “investigations weren’t carried out because of existing investigations being done by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Bank Negara and the Police.”
There could not be a more shameless and irresponsible reply from the Minister and the Government.
The PAC – which barely scratched the surface of the 1MDB scandal, has no prosecutorial powers. Bank Negara Malaysia, on the other hand, was investigating 1MDB purely from the Financial Services Act and certainly did not deal with the parties who had profited from the scandal.
At the same time, while the Police may have been investigating the criminal elements in 1MDB, the MACC has powers, laws and jurisdictions which are completely different from the Police to tackle corruption cases.
That was the whole point of the Parliament passing the MACC Act in the first place, so that there is a dedicated and independent commission to tackle the scourge of corruption and not let the burden be shouldered by the Royal Malaysian Police. What type “independent commission” worth its salt is MACC, if it leaves investigations, especially a scandal of such scale to other agencies?
In January this year, MACC commissioner Datuk Dzulkifly Ahmad warned corrupt politicians to “be careful”. He said he wasn’t afraid of protected individuals and would launch investigations without fear or favour. “Just you wait,” he had warned politicians.
Why is the MACC and Datuk Dzulkifly Ahmad, after all its showboating, so afraid of investigating the country’s biggest and most blatant corruption scandal?
Malaysians have been waiting long for MACC to launch its investigations into 1MDB especially after similar investigations have already begun in the US, Switzerland and Singapore. Just this weekend, even 1MDB-linked Prince Turki of Saudi Arabia was hauled up as part of an anti-corruption sweep in his own Kingdom.
In Malaysia, multiple reports have been lodged with the MACC regarding the 1MDB scandal. These included reports filed in December 2014 by then UMNO Batu Kawan Division Deputy Chief Datuk Khairuddin Abu Hassan and more recently, a Pakatan Harapan Youth-linked NGO in July this year. Hence it is a serious breach of MACC’s duty for failing to look into complaints of corruption.
These submitted reports were to be evaluated before the Commission’s Information Evaluation Committee to determine whether there were elements of corruption or not. If elements of corruption are found, it is imperative that an MACC investigation is opened before being referred to the AG for legal prosecution.
Was the above process conveniently ignored in MACC’s special treatment for 1MDB? Was this a condition for Datuk Dzulkifly Ahmad to be rapidly promoted to be appointed, less than 2 years ago, to be the Chief Commissioner in the first place?
It is preposterous for an independent commission like MACC to pass on its investigation to other agencies. Each authority has a different mandate to investigate, so it is entirely cowardly for MACC to turn a blind eye and let other agencies look into it.
Until the MACC finally grows a spine and properly considers reports against 1MDB, the commissioner's boastful warnings will remain in Malaysians’ eyes as baseless rhetoric.
Malaysians are stunned that failed 1MDB CEO, Arul Kanda is even better placed today to take over Khazanah’s Managing Director role in the near future.
According to the recent Singapore Straits Times’ report on 2 November 2017, the prospects of a Khazanah outsider such as Arul Kanda to come into the position is more likely following the resignation of Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop from Khazanah's board.
The Khazanah panel overseeing the leadership succession was until recently headed by its former deputy chairman, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yackop, who recently resigned from the fund following the completion of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into multi-billion dollar losses at Malaysia's central bank stemming from foreign exchange trading in the 1990s.
The Straits Times reported that senior Khazanah sources said that Mr Nor Mohamed was a strong advocate for Mr Azman's replacement to come from within Khazanah, and his departure could strengthen the push by vested interest groups to get an outside candidate.
Apparently senior politicians and well-connected business people close to Arul are lobbying Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak who, as Khazanah's chairman, would have the final say on who replaces Mr Azman. It is not hard to imagine Najib giving the job to the man who has willfully bent over backwards to defend his image and paint 1MDB as a success.
However, appointing Arul Kanda to lead Khazanah would only be an absolute disaster for the sovereign wealth fund.
Arul Kanda has had an utterly shameful record helming 1MDB. The debt stricken fund is supposed to be saved with the “rationalisation plan” he masterminded. However, to date, 1MDB has only found itself in a deeper hole with no sight of the end of the tunnel.
1MDB’s attempt to sell 60% of Bandar Malaysia was an abject failure. The Ministry of Finance had to terminate the contract because of the failure of the purchaser to make payments according to schedule despite repeated extensions. To rub salt onto would, it was the Minsitry of Finance which refunded the RM741 million ‘deposit’ despite it being 1MDB which received the monies. The fact that Arul Kanda was sacked by the Ministry of Finance from Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd practically says it all.
Just two weeks ago, I had reminded the Prime Minister that 1MDB’s sale of power assets to China General Nuclear Corporation incurred RM2.3 billion in losses. 1MDB’s reply, drafted by Arul Kanda himself, had tried to ‘erase’ the losses with an alleged RM2.13 billion in dividends received by the company.
However, the 1MDB President and CEO conveniently forgot to also include the interest cost which 1MDB had incurred to finance the acquisition of the power assets. As I said before, only a half-baked CEO would say that it’s made money off dividends without accounting for the interest bill.
While being exceedingly creative with the accounts on its own should have disqualified Arul Kanda from even being considered, what is worse is his brazen lies told to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) with regards to mysterious assets owned purportedly owned by 1MDB in its overseas subsidiaries.
For example, he has continued to insist on the monetisation of US$1.3 billion worth of investment ‘units’ in Singapore even though its subsidiary that holds the units has already been uncovered as a complete scam.
Today we know that the entire redemption exercise was a Ponzi-like round-tripping exercise using part of the proceeds from a Deutsche Bank loan to pretend that it’s the receipt from the ‘units’ redemption exercise.
Malaysians must protest the fact that a man who has proven incompetent and devoid of integrity is even considered for the post of Managing Director at Khazanah. If 1MDB, with debts up to RM50 billion at its peak could be brought to ruins, what more could happen at the RM145 billion Khazanah Nasional.
The Khazanah panel overseeing the leadership succession was until recently headed by its former deputy chairman, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yackop, who recently resigned from the fund following the completion of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into multi-billion dollar losses at Malaysia's central bank stemming from foreign exchange trading in the 1990s.
The Straits Times reported that senior Khazanah sources said that Mr Nor Mohamed was a strong advocate for Mr Azman's replacement to come from within Khazanah, and his departure could strengthen the push by vested interest groups to get an outside candidate.
Apparently senior politicians and well-connected business people close to Arul are lobbying Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak who, as Khazanah's chairman, would have the final say on who replaces Mr Azman. It is not hard to imagine Najib giving the job to the man who has willfully bent over backwards to defend his image and paint 1MDB as a success.
However, appointing Arul Kanda to lead Khazanah would only be an absolute disaster for the sovereign wealth fund.
Arul Kanda has had an utterly shameful record helming 1MDB. The debt stricken fund is supposed to be saved with the “rationalisation plan” he masterminded. However, to date, 1MDB has only found itself in a deeper hole with no sight of the end of the tunnel.
1MDB’s attempt to sell 60% of Bandar Malaysia was an abject failure. The Ministry of Finance had to terminate the contract because of the failure of the purchaser to make payments according to schedule despite repeated extensions. To rub salt onto would, it was the Minsitry of Finance which refunded the RM741 million ‘deposit’ despite it being 1MDB which received the monies. The fact that Arul Kanda was sacked by the Ministry of Finance from Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd practically says it all.
Just two weeks ago, I had reminded the Prime Minister that 1MDB’s sale of power assets to China General Nuclear Corporation incurred RM2.3 billion in losses. 1MDB’s reply, drafted by Arul Kanda himself, had tried to ‘erase’ the losses with an alleged RM2.13 billion in dividends received by the company.
However, the 1MDB President and CEO conveniently forgot to also include the interest cost which 1MDB had incurred to finance the acquisition of the power assets. As I said before, only a half-baked CEO would say that it’s made money off dividends without accounting for the interest bill.
While being exceedingly creative with the accounts on its own should have disqualified Arul Kanda from even being considered, what is worse is his brazen lies told to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) with regards to mysterious assets owned purportedly owned by 1MDB in its overseas subsidiaries.
For example, he has continued to insist on the monetisation of US$1.3 billion worth of investment ‘units’ in Singapore even though its subsidiary that holds the units has already been uncovered as a complete scam.
Today we know that the entire redemption exercise was a Ponzi-like round-tripping exercise using part of the proceeds from a Deutsche Bank loan to pretend that it’s the receipt from the ‘units’ redemption exercise.
Malaysians must protest the fact that a man who has proven incompetent and devoid of integrity is even considered for the post of Managing Director at Khazanah. If 1MDB, with debts up to RM50 billion at its peak could be brought to ruins, what more could happen at the RM145 billion Khazanah Nasional.
Thursday, November 02, 2017
If Tan Sri Apandi Ali is serious about 1MDB, why has it taken him forever to “instruct” the Police to continue their investigations?
After untold months of utter silence and inaction, two days ago, Attorney-General (AG) Tan Sri Apandi Ali suddenly said that investigation papers into 1MDB were still on-going.
He said further investigation into 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is necessary following “the lack of evidence in certain areas”.
“When the investigation papers are referred to us, we go through them. We find a lack of evidence. So, we give instruction that the team should carry out investigation in certain areas (to the Police)... About 20 to 25 per cent of the investigation papers need to be reviewed,” he said at a press conference.
If he really needed more evidence, why did Tan Sri Apandi Ali reject the request for mutual legal assistance requests from the Swiss Attorney General? In fact, why haven’t Tan Sri Apandi Ali sought assistance from the United States Department of Justice (US DOJ) for more information on the tens of billions of ringgit laundered from 1MDB funds?
Instead, in June this year, Tan Sri Apandi Ali chose to dismiss the evidence put forward by the US DOJ by accusing them of being “politically motivated”. The question for our AG is, did he even investigate those claims before concluding that they were “politically motivated”?
Similarly, the police are complicit in this shameful game of passing the parcel. In September, the newly appointed Inspector-General of Police, Dato’ Seri Mohd Fuzi Haron announced that the police had closed its investigations and wouldn’t reopen them unless instructed by the PAC or the cabinet. Is the new IGP so spineless that he will not investigate crimes without the green light of his political masters?
The AG too has only confirmed the continuing investigations because of Minister in Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman’s reply in Parliament on 30 October that they were still ongoing.
The Malaysian authorities seem to think that the 1MDB issue is a big joke given the way they’ve been handling it. Investigations start and close and get reopened by different authorities, yet no one seems to be getting closer to any firm conclusions.
In Parliament, questions on 1MDB get rejected because matters are either in court or under investigations. Which court matter or investigations they are rejected on are never revealed.
It cannot be clearer that all the institutions enshrined in our constitution to protect the interest of the people from criminals such as those who have robbed 1MDB of billions of ringgit have been compromised by the top leadership of Barisan Nasional.
The people of Malaysia have a heavy responsibility in the coming general election as only they can punish those who have grossly abused their power, accrued outrageous wealth for themselves and failed Malaysians who have placed their trust in them.
He said further investigation into 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is necessary following “the lack of evidence in certain areas”.
“When the investigation papers are referred to us, we go through them. We find a lack of evidence. So, we give instruction that the team should carry out investigation in certain areas (to the Police)... About 20 to 25 per cent of the investigation papers need to be reviewed,” he said at a press conference.
If he really needed more evidence, why did Tan Sri Apandi Ali reject the request for mutual legal assistance requests from the Swiss Attorney General? In fact, why haven’t Tan Sri Apandi Ali sought assistance from the United States Department of Justice (US DOJ) for more information on the tens of billions of ringgit laundered from 1MDB funds?
Instead, in June this year, Tan Sri Apandi Ali chose to dismiss the evidence put forward by the US DOJ by accusing them of being “politically motivated”. The question for our AG is, did he even investigate those claims before concluding that they were “politically motivated”?
Similarly, the police are complicit in this shameful game of passing the parcel. In September, the newly appointed Inspector-General of Police, Dato’ Seri Mohd Fuzi Haron announced that the police had closed its investigations and wouldn’t reopen them unless instructed by the PAC or the cabinet. Is the new IGP so spineless that he will not investigate crimes without the green light of his political masters?
The AG too has only confirmed the continuing investigations because of Minister in Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman’s reply in Parliament on 30 October that they were still ongoing.
The Malaysian authorities seem to think that the 1MDB issue is a big joke given the way they’ve been handling it. Investigations start and close and get reopened by different authorities, yet no one seems to be getting closer to any firm conclusions.
In Parliament, questions on 1MDB get rejected because matters are either in court or under investigations. Which court matter or investigations they are rejected on are never revealed.
It cannot be clearer that all the institutions enshrined in our constitution to protect the interest of the people from criminals such as those who have robbed 1MDB of billions of ringgit have been compromised by the top leadership of Barisan Nasional.
The people of Malaysia have a heavy responsibility in the coming general election as only they can punish those who have grossly abused their power, accrued outrageous wealth for themselves and failed Malaysians who have placed their trust in them.
Wednesday, November 01, 2017
We either have the stupidest Finance Minister in the world or one who is trying his very best to pretend to be the stupidest
I have asked the Minister of Finance to state the current value of remaining investment ‘units’ owned by 1MDB subsidiary Brazen Sky Limited and to name the bank or financial institution that was the ‘custodian’ of those investment ‘units’.
Tony Pua meminta Menteri Kewangan menyatakan baki nilai terkini pelaburan ‘unit’ yang dimiliki oleh anak syarikat 1MDB, Brazen Sky Limited dan nama institusi bank atau kewangan yang kini menjadi ‘custodian’ kepada pelaburan tersebut.
This question was rejected by the Speaker during the last sitting in July with the utterly ridiculous excuse that it was “buah fikiran” or basically a figment of my imagination. I’m grateful that the second attempt at posing this question to the Finance Minister has been accepted.
However, my joy was shortlived. I’ve received the reply dated 30 October 2017 from the Minister of Finance yesterday (attached). It was the stupidest “pretend to be stupid” reply I have ever received from any Minister in my 9 and the half years in Parliament.
My question asked what is the current value of “units” and who is the custodian bank. The reply start with “rancangan 1MDB untuk menyelesaikan hutang syarikat adalah seperti berikut…” or “the plan to resolve 1MDB’s debts are as follows”.
And the Minister goes on to tell the story of how selling the Edra Energy, 1MDB’s real estate properties and the investment ‘units’ will pay for the 1MDB debts. He might as well have added that the sun rises from the east and sets in the west.
The Minister’s answer could have been less than 10 words, and it would have answered my question perfectly. Value of units, and name of bank.
Is the Finance Minister that stupid that he could not understand simple English or Malay? Or he is trying his best to pretend to be a complete nitwit so that he doesn’t have to answer a very simple question from a Member of Parliament? Either way, the Finance Minister has show utter contempt for the Parliament.
Malaysians have the right to know the status of USD940 million worth of investment ‘units’ held by Brazen Sky Ltd. It’s not like the question has never been answered in Parliament before.
Current and former finance ministers, as well as 1MDB, itself had openly stated that the company had investments in the form of ‘units’ held with a ‘custodian bank’ previously valued at US$2.3 billion, of which a substantial portion has apparently been redeemed.
1MDB has in April this year, further emphasized that the investment ‘units’ would be “monetized” to repay Abu Dhabi’s IPIC the sum of US$1.2 billion. Hence, it is an extremely valid question to ask what is the current value of these units which are previously held in BSI Bank, Singapore.
However, more than a year after BSI lost its license in Singapore, and we are still looking for the same answers regarding Brazen Sky’s accounts. Who is its new ‘custodian’ bank and what is the status of its units?
Or are Malaysians to assume that the refusal of the Finance Minister to answer the above question is evidence that the ‘units’ are indeed a fraud as suspected with little or no value, and it’s current not held in any bank around the world?
Tony Pua meminta Menteri Kewangan menyatakan baki nilai terkini pelaburan ‘unit’ yang dimiliki oleh anak syarikat 1MDB, Brazen Sky Limited dan nama institusi bank atau kewangan yang kini menjadi ‘custodian’ kepada pelaburan tersebut.
This question was rejected by the Speaker during the last sitting in July with the utterly ridiculous excuse that it was “buah fikiran” or basically a figment of my imagination. I’m grateful that the second attempt at posing this question to the Finance Minister has been accepted.
However, my joy was shortlived. I’ve received the reply dated 30 October 2017 from the Minister of Finance yesterday (attached). It was the stupidest “pretend to be stupid” reply I have ever received from any Minister in my 9 and the half years in Parliament.
My question asked what is the current value of “units” and who is the custodian bank. The reply start with “rancangan 1MDB untuk menyelesaikan hutang syarikat adalah seperti berikut…” or “the plan to resolve 1MDB’s debts are as follows”.
And the Minister goes on to tell the story of how selling the Edra Energy, 1MDB’s real estate properties and the investment ‘units’ will pay for the 1MDB debts. He might as well have added that the sun rises from the east and sets in the west.
The Minister’s answer could have been less than 10 words, and it would have answered my question perfectly. Value of units, and name of bank.
Is the Finance Minister that stupid that he could not understand simple English or Malay? Or he is trying his best to pretend to be a complete nitwit so that he doesn’t have to answer a very simple question from a Member of Parliament? Either way, the Finance Minister has show utter contempt for the Parliament.
Malaysians have the right to know the status of USD940 million worth of investment ‘units’ held by Brazen Sky Ltd. It’s not like the question has never been answered in Parliament before.
Current and former finance ministers, as well as 1MDB, itself had openly stated that the company had investments in the form of ‘units’ held with a ‘custodian bank’ previously valued at US$2.3 billion, of which a substantial portion has apparently been redeemed.
1MDB has in April this year, further emphasized that the investment ‘units’ would be “monetized” to repay Abu Dhabi’s IPIC the sum of US$1.2 billion. Hence, it is an extremely valid question to ask what is the current value of these units which are previously held in BSI Bank, Singapore.
However, more than a year after BSI lost its license in Singapore, and we are still looking for the same answers regarding Brazen Sky’s accounts. Who is its new ‘custodian’ bank and what is the status of its units?
Or are Malaysians to assume that the refusal of the Finance Minister to answer the above question is evidence that the ‘units’ are indeed a fraud as suspected with little or no value, and it’s current not held in any bank around the world?
Friday, October 27, 2017
With outrageously creative accounting and a preposterous tax-payers’ bailout admitted by 1MDB itself, perhaps 1MDB will indeed be “on track to realise a profit”.
On Wednesday, I had accused the Prime Minister of peddling lies with the outrageous claim that 1MDB “is on track to realise a profit”, when 1MDB is nothing but a shell today laden with some RM40 billion of outstanding debt (including debts that have been assumed by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) over the past year).
1MDB tried vainly to defend the Prime Minister yesterday by spewing another set of half-truths and establish new standards of creative accounting.
I had, not for the first time, argued that 1MDB made some RM2.3 billion of losses from the sale of its acquired power plants to China General Nuclear Corporation. And not for the first time, 1MDB tried to argue that 1MDB didn’t lose money because of dividends purportedly received from the energy subsidiaries.
Let me remind the CEO of 1MDB, Arul Kanda again - he had conceded to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that were the purported RM2.18b in dividends to be counted, he also needs to account for the huge RM3.5 billion in interest costs on the loan is taken to purchase those assets in the first place.
Only a half-baked CEO would tell his shareholders that he made money from the dividends, without taking into account the massive interest bill which was substantially higher than the purported dividends!
Worse, when I checked the financial statements of 1MDB’s energy subsidiaries, there was not a single year where they declared dividends to their 1MDB parent. This meant that Arul Kanda cooked up the entire ‘dividend’ bullshit.
The Prime Minister himself declared that the proposed 1MDB rationalisation exercise practically ‘complete’ way back on 31 December 2015. He said then, “it is therefore clear that 1MDB’s major challenges are now behind it as I promised they would be last summer.”
Except two years later, the plans are not only far from complete, they have completely unravelled.
As I’ve already highlighted previously, the RM7.41 billion deal to sell 60% of Bandar Malaysia which was the pillar of the 1MDB rationalisation exercise, has collapse spectacularly with no end in sight.
1MDB which had no ability to develop the massive property project had surrendered Bandar Malaysia back to the MoF, as proposed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). And as 1MDB rightly pointed out, I was part of the committee which made the particular recommendation.
However, what PAC did not at any point in time recommend for the RM2.4 billion sukuk bond 1MDB borrowed for Bandar Malaysia to be also handed to MoF. This is because the Auditor-General has confirmed that hardly a single sen from the above bond was actually spent for the purposes of the Bandar Malaysia project – a fact which was also conceded by Arul Kanda to the PAC.
Most shockingly however, as admitted explicitly for the first time by 1MDB in its statement to condemn me, was that 1MDB is expecting to “receive payments, over time” from MoF for the above debt-laden asset transfers.
In layman terms, it means that not only the tax-payers were forced to assume 1MDB’s debt, we bloody fools have to even pay 1MDB to assume these debts!
The above doesn’t yet include the fact that MoF has only recently in August, directly or indirectly bailed out 1MDB by making some US$600 million (RM2.5 billion) in settlement payments to Abu Dhabi’s IPIC.
Perhaps, I was wrong after all. Despite being a shell laden with some RM40 billion of debts, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak was right to say that 1MDB “is on track to realise a profit” – with outrageously creative accounting and a preposterous tax-payers’ bailout.
1MDB tried vainly to defend the Prime Minister yesterday by spewing another set of half-truths and establish new standards of creative accounting.
I had, not for the first time, argued that 1MDB made some RM2.3 billion of losses from the sale of its acquired power plants to China General Nuclear Corporation. And not for the first time, 1MDB tried to argue that 1MDB didn’t lose money because of dividends purportedly received from the energy subsidiaries.
Let me remind the CEO of 1MDB, Arul Kanda again - he had conceded to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that were the purported RM2.18b in dividends to be counted, he also needs to account for the huge RM3.5 billion in interest costs on the loan is taken to purchase those assets in the first place.
Only a half-baked CEO would tell his shareholders that he made money from the dividends, without taking into account the massive interest bill which was substantially higher than the purported dividends!
Worse, when I checked the financial statements of 1MDB’s energy subsidiaries, there was not a single year where they declared dividends to their 1MDB parent. This meant that Arul Kanda cooked up the entire ‘dividend’ bullshit.
The Prime Minister himself declared that the proposed 1MDB rationalisation exercise practically ‘complete’ way back on 31 December 2015. He said then, “it is therefore clear that 1MDB’s major challenges are now behind it as I promised they would be last summer.”
Except two years later, the plans are not only far from complete, they have completely unravelled.
As I’ve already highlighted previously, the RM7.41 billion deal to sell 60% of Bandar Malaysia which was the pillar of the 1MDB rationalisation exercise, has collapse spectacularly with no end in sight.
1MDB which had no ability to develop the massive property project had surrendered Bandar Malaysia back to the MoF, as proposed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). And as 1MDB rightly pointed out, I was part of the committee which made the particular recommendation.
However, what PAC did not at any point in time recommend for the RM2.4 billion sukuk bond 1MDB borrowed for Bandar Malaysia to be also handed to MoF. This is because the Auditor-General has confirmed that hardly a single sen from the above bond was actually spent for the purposes of the Bandar Malaysia project – a fact which was also conceded by Arul Kanda to the PAC.
Most shockingly however, as admitted explicitly for the first time by 1MDB in its statement to condemn me, was that 1MDB is expecting to “receive payments, over time” from MoF for the above debt-laden asset transfers.
In layman terms, it means that not only the tax-payers were forced to assume 1MDB’s debt, we bloody fools have to even pay 1MDB to assume these debts!
The above doesn’t yet include the fact that MoF has only recently in August, directly or indirectly bailed out 1MDB by making some US$600 million (RM2.5 billion) in settlement payments to Abu Dhabi’s IPIC.
Perhaps, I was wrong after all. Despite being a shell laden with some RM40 billion of debts, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak was right to say that 1MDB “is on track to realise a profit” – with outrageously creative accounting and a preposterous tax-payers’ bailout.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Dato’ Seri Najib Razak is the biggest purveyor of ‘fake news’ by singing 1MDB's praises in his blog but has no courage to debate the mother of all scandals in Parliament
On his blog yesterday, Najib gave us his economic vision for the country ahead of the 2018 Budget announcement on Friday.
However, the entire credibility of his “economic vision” collapsed with the outrageous claim that 1MDB has not only “brought the country good” but “is on track to realise a profit”.
1MDB is currently an empty shell, holding absolutely nothing but some RM40 billion of debts. How in the world is 1MDB “on track to realise a profit”?! If this is not a brazen attempt by the Prime Minister to create ‘fake news’, what is?
Dato’ Seri Najib argued that it was 1MDB which solved the lop-sided power purchase agreements attributed to the previous BN Prime Minister.
We are thankful that Dato’ Seri Najib finally admitted that those independent power producers (IPPs) were allowed to profit astronomically from the BN government of which he was part of before. However, Malaysians are still clueless as to how 1MDB apparently “solved” the above injustice.
As far as we are concerned, Malaysians didn’t enjoy a single sen in benefit as electricity tariffs have only increased and not decreased since 1MDB started acquiring these IPPs. Worse, the 1MDB’s RM12.1 billion-misadventure in the power sector resulted in multi-billion ringgit losses when it was forced to dispose of its entire energy interests to a China outfit for a mere RM9.3 billion.
Dato’ Seri Najib Razak further told Malaysians to laud 1MDB for its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) work including its sponsorship of hajj pilgrimages and scholarships purportedly amounting to RM690 million.
What the Prime Minister failed to tell Malaysians is that the so-called CSR is funded entirely with government-guaranteed debt amounting to more than RM40 billion.
More pertinently, while RM690 million of the debt may have found its way to CSR initiatives, US$732 million or approximately RM3 billion found its way from 1MDB to Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank account in Ambank between 2011 to 2014. The Prime Minister has to date failed to debunk this expose by the US Depart of Justice.
Najib must think Malaysians fools to believe in all his outrageous lies.
If the Prime Minister really thinks that 1MDB has been the saviour of Malaysia, then he should immediately lift the ban on sensitive 1MDB questions raised in the august House. Instead, he should table a Ministerial Statement to ‘debunk’ all the so-called ‘lies’ by the members of the opposition and allow for a full debate on the 1MDB scandal.
However, if Dato’ Seri Najib Razak chooses not to be accountable in Parliament, then he will prove himself to be the most corrupt and cowardly Prime Minister in the history of Malaysia who relies on the BN-controlled mainstream media to propound his ‘fake news’.
However, the entire credibility of his “economic vision” collapsed with the outrageous claim that 1MDB has not only “brought the country good” but “is on track to realise a profit”.
1MDB is currently an empty shell, holding absolutely nothing but some RM40 billion of debts. How in the world is 1MDB “on track to realise a profit”?! If this is not a brazen attempt by the Prime Minister to create ‘fake news’, what is?
Dato’ Seri Najib argued that it was 1MDB which solved the lop-sided power purchase agreements attributed to the previous BN Prime Minister.
We are thankful that Dato’ Seri Najib finally admitted that those independent power producers (IPPs) were allowed to profit astronomically from the BN government of which he was part of before. However, Malaysians are still clueless as to how 1MDB apparently “solved” the above injustice.
As far as we are concerned, Malaysians didn’t enjoy a single sen in benefit as electricity tariffs have only increased and not decreased since 1MDB started acquiring these IPPs. Worse, the 1MDB’s RM12.1 billion-misadventure in the power sector resulted in multi-billion ringgit losses when it was forced to dispose of its entire energy interests to a China outfit for a mere RM9.3 billion.
Dato’ Seri Najib Razak further told Malaysians to laud 1MDB for its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) work including its sponsorship of hajj pilgrimages and scholarships purportedly amounting to RM690 million.
What the Prime Minister failed to tell Malaysians is that the so-called CSR is funded entirely with government-guaranteed debt amounting to more than RM40 billion.
More pertinently, while RM690 million of the debt may have found its way to CSR initiatives, US$732 million or approximately RM3 billion found its way from 1MDB to Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank account in Ambank between 2011 to 2014. The Prime Minister has to date failed to debunk this expose by the US Depart of Justice.
Najib must think Malaysians fools to believe in all his outrageous lies.
If the Prime Minister really thinks that 1MDB has been the saviour of Malaysia, then he should immediately lift the ban on sensitive 1MDB questions raised in the august House. Instead, he should table a Ministerial Statement to ‘debunk’ all the so-called ‘lies’ by the members of the opposition and allow for a full debate on the 1MDB scandal.
However, if Dato’ Seri Najib Razak chooses not to be accountable in Parliament, then he will prove himself to be the most corrupt and cowardly Prime Minister in the history of Malaysia who relies on the BN-controlled mainstream media to propound his ‘fake news’.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
The Speaker has gone bonkers in his over-zealousness to cover up the 1MDB mega-scandal, in this case a US$600 million (RM2.5 billion) emergency bailout of 1MDB by the Ministry of Finance in August 2017
The Parliament question time has become a complete joke. During the last sitting, I had 5 questions rejected for asking questions with regards to 1MDB. This round, I have 3, in part because I submitted less questions on 1MDB to avoid too many questions being thrown out.
However, the basis of rejecting the questions I had posed remained completely untenable. For example, I had asked submitted the following question to be answered today:
However, I received a rejection letter from the Speaker claiming that the question could not be answered presumably because it would be subjudice as “the matter is in court”. But the above payment which is part of an agreed settlement with IPIC has nothing to do with any court, whether in Malaysia or any where around the world.
I didn’t even ask about the ‘settlement’ itself. I merely asked if the MOF helped 1MDB, directly or indirectly, with the US$600 million payment to IPIC which was made in the month of August. Hence, how is this in any way related to any court case?
The Speaker should be reminded that in April this year, it was 1MDB itself who claimed that its payment obligations would be funded by the monetisation of investment ‘units’.
In August, 1MDB changed their tune and said that the payments were funded through the ‘proceeds of the on-going rationalisation programme’. What exactly is this rationalisation programme?
Is it not ridiculous that 1MDB can make all sorts of conflicting and vague statements to the public but Members of Parliament have no recourse to obtain any clarification or confirmations from the Ministers?
Both 1MDB and the MOF need to come clean about the source of these payments. If the Ministry is helping make these payments, surely the rakyat have a right to know. In fact, the refusal to respond has only confirmed the suspicions that the MOF has indeed conducted an emergency RM2.5 billion bailout of 1MDB in August this year.
We very much regret that the purportedly independent Speaker’s Office is now helping 1MDB and MOF cover up questions on the scandal. I will certainly raise this question again in my speech in this sitting and it will make a complete mockery of the Budget debate if the Finance Minister cannot tell us where our money has been used or spent.
However, the basis of rejecting the questions I had posed remained completely untenable. For example, I had asked submitted the following question to be answered today:
Tony Pua meminta Menteri Kewangan menyatakan adakah 1MDB membayar lebih kurang US$600 juta kepada IPIC pada bulan Ogos 2017 melalui pengewangan (“monetisation”) ‘unit’ dana pelaburan 1MDB? Adakah Kementerian Kewangan telah membantu membiayai bayaran tersebut secara langsung atau tidak langsung?The question was whether 1MDB’s settlement to Abu Dhabi’s IPIC was funded through the monetisation of 1MDB investment ‘units’ and/or whether the Ministry of Finance (MOF) had helped support these payments either directly or indirectly.
However, I received a rejection letter from the Speaker claiming that the question could not be answered presumably because it would be subjudice as “the matter is in court”. But the above payment which is part of an agreed settlement with IPIC has nothing to do with any court, whether in Malaysia or any where around the world.
I didn’t even ask about the ‘settlement’ itself. I merely asked if the MOF helped 1MDB, directly or indirectly, with the US$600 million payment to IPIC which was made in the month of August. Hence, how is this in any way related to any court case?
The Speaker should be reminded that in April this year, it was 1MDB itself who claimed that its payment obligations would be funded by the monetisation of investment ‘units’.
In August, 1MDB changed their tune and said that the payments were funded through the ‘proceeds of the on-going rationalisation programme’. What exactly is this rationalisation programme?
Is it not ridiculous that 1MDB can make all sorts of conflicting and vague statements to the public but Members of Parliament have no recourse to obtain any clarification or confirmations from the Ministers?
Both 1MDB and the MOF need to come clean about the source of these payments. If the Ministry is helping make these payments, surely the rakyat have a right to know. In fact, the refusal to respond has only confirmed the suspicions that the MOF has indeed conducted an emergency RM2.5 billion bailout of 1MDB in August this year.
We very much regret that the purportedly independent Speaker’s Office is now helping 1MDB and MOF cover up questions on the scandal. I will certainly raise this question again in my speech in this sitting and it will make a complete mockery of the Budget debate if the Finance Minister cannot tell us where our money has been used or spent.
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