Scandal of SALCO – How Taib Plans To Make Billions From Bakun!
Sarawak Report
Displaced families, who have received so little compensation from Bakun, may be interested to learn how Taib and his own family are planning to make billions for themselves out of the hydro-electric dam, based on an investment of just RM2.00!
We can reveal that SALCO (Sarawak Aluminium Company Sdn Bhd), the company that has been handed a licence to build a vast smelter in Simalaju, powered by cheap electricity from the dam, is secretively entirely owned by the Taib family company, CMS.
So far, they have only issued two shares for the company, worth a mere one ringgit each!
Scandalous SALCO scam!
Controlling interest – SALCO is run out of the Taib building, Wisma Mahmud
Our revelation sheds light on a classic money-making scam, that is still in its early stages for the Chief Minister, but where the planned outcome is plain to see.
It depends on a blatant willingness by Taib to abuse his political influence, in order to divert public money into his own pocket.
At the centre of the ploy, is the company Sarawak Aluminium Company Sdn Bhd, which has always been officially presented as a ‘Joint Venture’ between the giant multinational, Rio Tinto Alcan and CMS, after the two companies signed a so-called Heads of Agreement in 2007 to explore the possibility of investing in the smelter project.
Government support – invaluable for a company with just RM2.00 investment!
In 2008 this supposed joint venture received a manufacturing licence from the Malaysian Federal Government’s Industrial Development Authority and it also established a Memorandum of Understanding to open negotiations with Sarawak’s energy authority, SEB, over access to the electricity.
Ever since, the planned SALCO aluminium smelter has been placed at the top of Taib’s proclaimed SCORE agenda for developing the potential of the Bakun Dam.
SALCO – is this really who we are?
And, whenever the project is referred to, whether in press releases, statements by ministers, interviews by CMS executives or, indeed, on SALCO’s own website it has always been clearly suggested that the company is 60% owned by Rio Tinto and 40% owned by CMS.
Likewise, the licences and agreements granted by government agencies have further implied that SALCO represents a serious joint financial investment backed by the multi-national.
Heads of agreement between Rio Tinto and CMS’s Richard Curtis – with Chief Minister (and Chief Shareholder) Taib Mahmud centre stage in a deal designed to net him a fortune!
However, our company research reveals that in fact SALCO in fact consists of just two shares, issued for a mere one ringgit each, both owned by a company called Samalaju Aluminium Industries Sdn Bhd.
Just two shares at one ringgit each
Samalaju Industries Sdn Bhd is in turn entirely owned by CMS!
One ringgit per share
Earlier this week a spokesman for Rio Tinto Alcan in the company’s Montreal headquarters conceded to Sarawak Report “there is not much news to report in terms of the Joint Venture” and stressed that the multi-national would not buy into the project “unless the price is right” for the electricity:
“We are actively participating in the negotiations for the power purchase agreement for the feasibility studies to commence”[RTA spokesman]
However, the spokesman confirmed that the multi-national is indeed interested in a proposed 60% stake in SALCO, as long as it can get the large amounts of cheap electricity it wants!.
Given that, as predicted, the Bakun Dam has created a glut of electricity in the state, even with just two of its eight turbines in action, and given there are few other customers in sight, it is likely to succeed.
So, the stage is now set for Rio Tinto Alcan to buy over a 60% stake in SALCO!
Read more at: http://www.sarawakreport.org/2012/02/scandal-of-salco-how-taib-plans-to-make-billions-from-bakun/
