MACC probing into SSER, president removed

KUALA LUMPUR: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the Finance Ministry (MoF) has lodged a report with the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission (MACC) on the RM9.4 billion pipeline projects overseen by Suria Strategic Energy Resources Sdn Bhd (SSER).

He said MoF had taken over SSER offices while MACC had seized documents on the projects.

“All SSER employees have been placed on ‘garden leave’.

“SSER president Datuk Mohammed Azhar Osman Khairuddin, who is the company’s director, has been removed.”

He said MoF was in the process of appointing an executive committee, led by an accounting firm, to operate and investigate transactions by SSER.

Lim listed these actions after discovering that the previous government had paid out 88 per cent of RM9.4 billion for the two projects without having proper requirements.

“We discovered that SSER had failed to secure rights from Petronas as required by law to lay pipes for the multi-product pipeline (MPP), and has also failed to acquire land in Sabah to do the same for the Trans-Sabah Gas Pipeline (TSGP).”

Lim said there was nothing to back former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s claim that China had committed to import goods worth US$2 trillion (RM8 trillion) as part of the two pipeline agreements.

He said nothing of that sort was documented and all officials who were asked about the claim stated that what the former prime minister had said was untrue.

“Over the past few days, we have sought the assistance of Treasury officials and the chief secretary to the government to determine the veracity of Najib’s claim of US$2 trillion commitments made by China to Malaysia were linked to the signing of the two pipeline agreements.

“All officials asked stated that these claims by Najib are untrue.

“There was no mention of the various ‘commitments’ made by China as claimed by Najib in any of the cabinet papers presented in 2016 and last year, which approved the SSER projects.

“Unless, of course, there are hidden cabinet papers or ‘red’ cabinet minutes that no one has access to except the former prime minister himself.”

Najib, who was former finance minister, issued a statement on June 5 defending his administration’s award of two petrochemical and gas pipeline projects worth RM9.4 billion to China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau by SSER.

Najib claimed that he and China’s Premier Li Keqiang had witnessed the signing of the memorandum of understand-ing (MoU) for the pipeline projects along with other projects while in Beijing on May 14 last year.

He claimed that China had committed to importing goods worth US$2 trillion over the next five years from Malaysia, invest up to US$150 billion in Malaysia and offer 10,000 places for training and studies in various institutes in China as part of the pipeline deals.