Lokman Adam : The Govt must stop making political allegations that will damage our international relations

1. The Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng should provide more details to prove this allegations today that the two pipeline projects are a scandal.

2. In his statement, he had made the very specific allegation that payments were made ahead of construction milestone to China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPPB) - not to any other companies. There were no allegation that such payments had been diverted or wrongly paid to other companies.

3. Checks show that CPPB is one of the top pipeline builders in the world and has completed more than 10,000km of pipelines. CPPB is also a wholly owned subsidiary of the China-government owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which is listed at number four in the 2017 Fortune 500 global companies with revenues of US$263 billion last year.

Given their strength and track-record, is Guan Eng alleging that the CPPB or CNPC may not complete the two projects on-time after receiving these payments?

4. It is not unusual for turn-key construction projects to have payment schedules different from construction milestones. This could be due to the government to government negotiations related to the soft-loan given by the China government. Perhaps the MOF can disclose the entire agreement for the public to examine why the payment milestones were structured this way?

5. Guan Eng also made references to two other consultancy contracts and a maintenance contract. Can Guan Eng also disclose who these companies are, whether they are private companies and if they are linked to the state-owned CPPB and CNPC?

6. Guan Eng's also accuses that the 100% MOF-owned special purpose vehicle to deliver this project, Suria Strategic Energy Resources (SSER) is linked to SRC and 1MDB because of two reasons. 

7. The first reason is that SSER has a similar name to Strategic Resources Corporation Bhd (SRC) since it has the words "Strategic" and "Resources" in it.  However, checks with SSM shows that SSER is not a subsidiary of SRC Bhd but is 100% directly owned by Minister of Finance Incorporated with all 30,000,001 issued shares.

8. The second reason given by him is that SSER's CEO is Dato Mohammed Azhar Bin Osman Khairuddin had previously been a  Independent Non-Executive Director at Putrajaya Perdana Berhad. 

9. While it is true that Jho Low had reportedly bought the then listed Putrajaya Perdana Berhad and another listed company Loh and Loh Berhad in 2007 with middle-east backing before 1MDB existed, Dato' Azhar is a senior Petronas veteran and  have served in various capacities since 1979 including as a director in Petronas Gas and Petronas Bhd. Therefore, he would have the necessary experience and expertise to undertake the job at SSER.

10. Today's allegation is particularly damaging as our MOF is essentially implying that the China government has colluded with our government in carrying out corrupt practises. This can only be negative for our diplomatic and trading relations.

11.  If there is wrong-doing, let the relevant authorities investigate first. The PH Government should stop making political allegations via press conferences in their attempt to continue bad-mouthing the previous BN government.