KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 — The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will summon former Pos Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Adam Kadir tomorrow over his allegations that the postal service suffered losses and should not be sold to strategic investors.
PAC chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said the parliamentary body will look into the allegations made by Adam in the media.
“Tomorrow, we will call the former CEO of Pos Malaysia, who has made statements to the media. We want to know the reasons behind the problems. We have yet to make any conclusions,” he told reporters in Parliament.
PAC met Khazanah Nasional Berhad chief operating officer Datuk Mohammad Zainal Shaari and Pos Malaysia chief executive officer Datuk Syed Faisal Albar over Adam’s allegations.
“We wanted to hear explanations from Khazanah Malaysia and Pos Malaysia on the problems reported by the papers and blogs,” said Azmi, the Padang Besar MP.
Khazanah issued a statement refuting Adam’s allegations reported on May 2, in which he had claimed that Khazanah had not given a true picture of Pos Malaysia’s paper losses relating to Transmile Group Bhd shares.
Adam also asked Najib to review Khazanah’s role in managing government-owned and government-linked companies and other assets.
Adam, who is the Ex-Elected Representatives of Umno Association (Pakku) president, said it was against Khazanah’s move to sell about 33 per cent of its shares in Pos Malaysia to others which Khazanah claimed were strategic buyers.
He reiterated the association’s main criticism against Khazanah was centred on Pos Malaysia’s RM800 million capital repayment exercise in 2007 and an alleged aborted sale of its shares in Transmile.
Pos Malaysia’s net profit also eroded by 93 per cent to RM1.6 million for the first quarter of this year. The losses amounting to RM19.4 million in the quarter have been attributed to the company’s investment in the financially-troubled Transmile.
Meanwhile, Azmi also confirmed that PAC will haul up officials from Sime Darby in August.
“Sime Darby asked for the hearing to be postponed to August because they are not ready to meet tomorrow,” he said.
On May 27,Sime Darby posted a January-March net loss of RM308.6 million compared with a RM150.6 million profit a year ago after massive cost overruns bled its energy division.
The loss was the first since the country’s second-biggest listed company was established in 2007, when it merged with two other government-controlled plantation groups.
