Suspended 4 must reply to show-cause letter
KUALA LUMPUR: Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) chief executive officer Datuk Zakaria Arshad and three other top executives suspended by the company will still be required to reply to show-cause letters issued to them despite the change in the management.
A source from the company said their response to the showcause letter was relevant as the appointment of the FGV chairman was a separate issue from the action taken against the four management officials who had been asked to go on leave.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) announced that Tan Sri Sulaiman Mahbob replaced Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad as FGV chairman with immediate effect.
Isa was made acting chairman of the Land Public Transport Commission.
“This domestic inquiry will still proceed as it is a separate issue. They have been given seven days from the day it was issued. It expires tomorrow (today),” the source told the New Straits Times.
Once their replies were handed in, the board would deliberate on it, he said, noting that the board did not have a specific timeframe as to when a decision (on their positions) would be finalised.
Zakaria, in a statement yesterday, said he would abide by the recommendations in the assessment report by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala.
Idris was appointed as an independent party to establish the facts of the case behind the FGV tussle and tasked with recommending the way forward.
On the ongoing domestic inquiry, Zakaria said he was confident that he shall be proven innocent.
He said he had engaged Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah as his legal counsel.
Zakaria also congratulated Sulaiman on his new position.
Zakaria, who was abruptly asked to go on leave on June 6 amid a boardroom tussle, had urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to probe into FGV’s dealings.
Reports suggested that the rift between Isa and Zakaria was over late payment involving Afghan company Safitex Trading for palm oil products supplied by FGV subsidiary Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd.
Zakaria, on June 5, denied any wrongdoing and said the arrangement with Safitex was approved and implemented by his predecessor, according to a letter sighted by the NST.