Najib wants Felda Global Ventures crisis resolved during this Ramadan

KULAI: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has outlined three main principles to resolve the crisis at Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) and wants the issue to be settled during this Ramadan.

“Firstly, it (investigation) must comply with the company’s laws. Secondly, it must be in line with good governance, and thirdly, the investigation must go through a fair process,” he said during his speech at the National Level Felda Ramadan Ihya Rahmat programme at Felda Sungai Sayong here, Friday night.

Najib said the appointment of former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Idris Jala as an independent party to address the crisis that is affecting FGV was based on these three principles..

This is also to ensure that the facts that were obtained were accurate, and the government will finally be able to make a decision on the FGV crisis.

Najib who is also Finance Minister said it was the government’s desire to see the crisis resolved urgently.

“Once this issue has been settled, our aim is to make FGV a high-value conglomerate, with much bigger revenue than today and share value at a much higher level,” he said.

At present, Najib said he was still discussing with the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) Chairman, Tan Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad to decide on FGV’s future.

“With the government’s commitment, we will strive so that FGV has an excellent future, Insya Allah (God willing),” he said.

Earlier, Najib also spent time to visit the 1Malaysia PeopleFriendly Housing project site, a joint-venture between Felda and Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd.

The Prime Minister later presented a Hari Raya incentive payment replica cheque to the National Felda Settler Chief Shamsuddin Othman.

He had earlier announced an incentive of RM500 for each Felda settler family to assist them in celebrating Aidilfitri.

He also announced that Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) will be paying out a dividend of RM280 to each Felda settler.

Last Tuesday, FGV Board of Directors instructed its four senior executives including Group President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Datuk Zakaria Arshad, to go on leave effective immediately.

The leave of absence was reportedly to facilitate an internal audit to investigate the outstanding payments from Safitex Trading LLC to Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of FGV.

Besides Zakaria, the other three executives who were asked to take a leave of absence were Chief Financial Officer, Ahmad Tifli Mohd Talha; Delima Oil Products Senior General Manager, Kamarzaman Abd Karim and FGV Trading CEO, Ahmad Salman Omar.