LEAVE....Ahmad
Zubir had been asked to go on leave prior to his replacement as Sime’s Chief
Executive.
By : DEBRA CHONG
KUALA LUMPUR : Former Sime
Darby Chief Executive, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zubir Murshid was arrested yesterday and
will be charged today for alleged criminal breach of trust (CBT) over a RM80
million land deal in a case that may open a can of worms for the government
conglomerate’s operations.
Ahmad Zubir surrendered
himself to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) at its headquarters
in Putrajaya earlier yesterday afternoon and had his statement recorded.
MACC’s director of
investigations, Datuk Mustafa Ali, confirmed the arrest but declined to
elaborate, English-language daily The Star reported. Ahmad Zubir was
subsequently released on bail, the paper reported.
He had been expected to be
charged at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court earlier today.
But an MACC official who
declined to be named told The Malaysian Insider the prosecution would be
delayed until tomorrow as the case had not been registered yet.
Two years ago, Ahmad Zubir
was removed from his position as the President and Group Head of the
government-linked plantations-to-property giant and replaced by Datuk Azhar
Abdul Hamid, who was then the head of Sime Darby Plantations.
He had been asked to take a
leave of absence prior to the expiry of his contract on November 26, 2010
following concerns over cost overruns amounting to RM964 million from the four
troubled projects in the energy and utilities division, namely the Bulhanine
and Maydan Mahzam project with Qatar Petroleum, the Maersk Oil Qatar project,
the Bakun hydroelectric dam project in Sarawak, and the “Marine Project”.
Sime Darby’s energy and
utilities division reported an operating loss of RM1.7 billion for 2010 after
making additional provisions of RM777.3 million for the fourth quarter.
The last time Sime Darby saw
such a large loss at one of its units came after the 1997 Asian financial
crisis when a plunge in the stock market and a sharp depreciation of the
ringgit led its financial arm, Sime Bank, to post a RM1.6 billion loss — the
largest in Malaysian banking history — for the six months to December 1997.
The conglomerate turned in a
net profit of RM726 million for 2010 despite reporting a fourth-quarter net
loss after tax and minority interest of RM77.4 million.
Sime Darby reported RM1
billion in net profit for the fourth quarter of last year and a net profit of
RM2.3 billion for the whole of 2009.
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