Lawmakers tell Sime Darby to reveal forensic audit
By Boo Su-Lyn, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 — Troubled government conglomerate Sime Darby Berhad should disclose a forensic audit into a unit’s RM2.1 billion losses instead of just initiating a lawsuit, lawmakers from both sides of the divide said today.
They said the disclosure of the forensic audit was crucial to identify those responsible for the conglomerate’s huge losses in its energy and utilities (EU) division in the last financial year through possible mismanagement and wrongdoing.
“We have to see the audit to see who was responsible,” DAP publicity chief Tony Pua told The Malaysian Insider today.
“It is difficult to tell if the fault lies in middle-level managers who engaged in fraud, or if it was because the board did not do their duties, such as approving bills that should not have been approved in the first place or whether they set up ventures they have no experience in.
“We have to see the report before making conclusions,” he added.
Yesterday, Sime Darby’s acting chief executive Datuk Mohd Bakke Salleh declined to disclose the forensic report saying that it had been advised by legal counsel not to do so as it was in the midst of filing a civil suit to recover money it lost at its EU division.
He said that Sime Darby would initiate the legal proceedings by year-end, but would leave the criminal aspects to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Securities Commission (SC), which have received copies of the forensic report.
An Investigative Reports Review Committee chaired by Tan Sri Samsudin Osman was established in July to review the audit reports on the troubled EU division and the results of the forensic audit was considered by the board on September 20.
Today, Pua pointed out that the government should present a white paper on the controversy to Parliament as Sime Darby was a government-linked company (GLC).
“It involves public money. It is a GLC. So they are responsible to the people as stakeholders. A white paper must be presented in Parliament together with full details of the forensic audit on what happened in Sime Darby,” said the Petaling Jaya Utara MP.
Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, however, said that Sime Darby should first reveal the forensic report to its stakeholders at Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB).
“They should start by disclosing it (the forensic report) to stakeholders first. It’s only right that such information needs to be shared with relevant stakeholders… ultimately PNB,” he said.
The Rembau MP also pointed out that it was likely that the board would have been aware if mismanagement had occurred.
“If there was in some way mismanagement or negligence of this scale, it is only natural that the board should have known. If the board wasn’t aware, that is negligence itself,” said Khairy.
“We should look at the corporate governance issues that took place prior to some of these decisions being made and really identify … not just senior management, but also the board and various committees who made these decisions,” he added.
Khairy, however, stopped short of calling for the entire board to be dismissed, saying: “We have to find out in more detail what the roles of both management and the board of directors were.”
