‘US$11.7m debt exceeded credit limit’

KUALA LUMPUR: Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd says the outstanding debts owed to Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd by Safitex Trading LLC, originally at US$8.3 million, which led to an impairment exposure, have increased to US$11.7 million.

The original amount was first reported on Feb 18 last year by external auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) in its statutory financial audit on FGV for the year ended Dec 31, 2015.

“This matter has been continuously reported in PwC’s subsequent quarterly review reports. Since then, (the) management had continuously represented that the balance would be fully recoverable.

“Instead, the balance subsequently increased to US$11.7 million and exceeded the allocated credit limit per PwC’s statutory financial audit for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2016, which was reported to the audit committee on Feb 17, 2017,” the FGV board of directors said in a statement yesterday.

The statement was in response to reports on the FGV board’s decision to ask four senior FGV officers, including president and chief executive officer Datuk Zakaria Arshad, to go on leave.

The board said the transactions with Safitex had involved the sale of edible oil and fats to the Dubai-based company meant for delivery to the Afghanistan market.

On April 20 this year, the board said it had instructed group internal audit to carry out an investigation of the matter and detected potential contraventions of group policies.

This led to a decision by it to request the four senior officers to go on leave.