BinaFikir fees RM1,697,027.77, PlaneConsult fees more than RM3 million

Jawapan Lisan – 21-6-2012

Y.B. TUAN WEE CHOO KEONG [WANGSA MAJU] minta MENTERI KEWANGAN menyatakan bila seorang Menteri berjanji di Parlimen untuk memberi informasi seumpama fi konsultan yang telah dibayar oleh MAS kepada BinaFikir Sdn. Bhd, untuk Projek WAU yang melibatkan jumlah wang RM200 juta dan senarai nama untuk 12 syarikat yang terlibat dalam kontrak fuel hedging di mana MAS mengalami kerugian sebanyak RM3.3 bilion, adakah Khazanah dan/atau syarikat GLC seperti MAS berhak untuk tidak memberi apa-apa maklumat yang diperlukan kepada Parlimen dan bahawa Khazanah dan/atau syarikat seperti MAS boleh kekal bersembunyi di bawah klausa CONFIDENTIALITY atau NON-DISCLOSURE sedangkan MAS menggunakan wang rakyat.

JAWAPAN

Tuan Yang di-Pertua,

Untuk makluman Yang Berhormat, peruntukan kerahsiaan dan non disclosure merupakan peruntukan standard/kebiasaan dalam sesuatu kontrak untuk melindungi kepentingan pihak-pihak terlibat dalam kontrak berkenaan. Oleh demikian, pendedahan sebarang maklumat yang diklasifikasikan sebagai rahsia dalam sesuatu kontrak oleh mana-mana pihak tanpa persetujuan pihak-pihak lain dalam kontrak terlibat boleh memberi implikasi perundangan kepada pihak yang mendedahkan maklumat berkenaan kerana tidak mematuhi aku janji kerahsiaan. Memandangkan peruntukan berkenaan adalah standard/kebiasaan, ia bukan hanya diguna pakai oleh GLC tetapi juga oleh syarikat-syarikat bukan GLC.

Sungguhpun demikian, MAS telah mendapatkan kelulusan sewajarnya daripada pihak perunding yang berkaitan untuk memberi makluman kepada Parlimen mengenai perkara-perkara berikut:

i)               Senarai 12 syarikat yang terlibat dalam kontrak fuel hedging dengan MAS:

• CIMB Bank Berhad
• Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad
• Barclays Bank PLC
• Citibank Malaysia (L) Labuan
• Deutsche Bank
• J.Aron & Company (Sin) Pte (Goldman Sachs)
• J.P. Morgan Chase
• Mitsui Energy Risk Mgt (Mitsui)
• Morgan Stanley Capital Group, Inc.
• Petro Diamond Risk Mgt Ltd (Mitsubishi Corp)
• SocieteGenerale
• UBS Investment Bank

ii)             Jumlah bayaran rundingan yang telah dibayar kepada BinaFikir oleh MAS berhubung penstrukturan semula syarikat di bawah projek Widespread Assets Unbundling (WAU)

Bayaran yang telah dibuat oleh MAS kepada Bina Fikir Sdn. Bhd. pada tahun 2002 berhubung penstrukturan semula MAS di bawah projek Widespread Assets Unbundling (WAU) adalah berjumlah RM1,697,027.77. Wajar ditekankan di sini bahawa jumlah fi yang dibayar kepada BinaFikir ini adalah kira-kira 117 kali lebih rendah daripada jumlah yang didakwa oleh Yang Berhormat Wangsa Maju.

 Pelaksanaan projek WAU telah diluluskan oleh para pemegang saham MAS dalam Mesyuarat Agung Luar Biasanya pada 5 November 2002 bagi menyusun semula kewangan MAS. Ia bertujuan untuk menyediakan asas kewangan yang kukuh bagi membolehkan pihak pengurusan melaksanakan penstrukturan semula operasi yang lebih menyeluruh.

 Penstrukturan semula kewangan tidak boleh menjadi penyelesaian kekal bagi sesebuah syarikat memandangkan syarikat harus berada dalam kedudukan yang kukuh dari segi operasi serta menjana keuntungan operasi.

Notes:

The majority of 12 companies given in the answers are banks. The questions asked are names of Fuel Hedging Companies. Never knew that banks are into fuel hedging also.

The above questions have been asked through Parliament since last year and the little Napoleons in Khazanah has been hiding behind the “NON-DISCLOSURE” in the consultancy agreement between BinaFikir Sdn Bhd and MAS for the WAU Project. BinaFikir was incorporated in January 2002 and almost soon after it was awarded by MAS to restructure MAS. WAU was coined. The two co-founders of BinaFikir were Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar and his most trusted crony, En Mohamed Rashdan Yusof.

WAU took 8 1/2 months to complete. It was also under WAU that 70% of MAS Catering Sdn Bhd was sold to Gubahan Saujana Sdn Bhd (Gubahan), a company owned by Datuk Ibrahim bin Ahmad Badawi, the brother of YB Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the former PM. Thereafter, Gubahan was changed to LSG Sky Chef Brahim’s Sdn Bhd. It was also during the Project WAU that MAS entered into a lope sided 25 years catering contract with LSG Sky Chef Brahim’s Sdn Bhd that cost MAS a total of RM6.25 billion.

The question of the consultancy fees has been raised in Parliament since last year but the little Napoleon in Khazanah was hiding behind the Non-Disclosure Clause. It was during the Parliamentary Debate during the last session in March 2012 that the Deputy Minister of Finance, YB Datuk Donald Lim, promised Parliament that he will provide the cost of consultancy fees charged by BinaFikir and the 12 fuel hedging companies that cost MAS RM3.3 billion losses. But YB Datuk Donald Lim took great pain to explain that he could not provide such information because the little Napoleons in Khazanah were invoking the Non-Disclosure Clause in the consultancy agreement and the fuel hedging agreements.

We have been asked to believed that the fees charged by  BinaFikir fees was RM1,697,027.77 for work done over 8/12 months. PlaneConsult charged MAS over RM3 million for worth done over 2 to 3 months.

Yesterday yours truly did ask the Deputy Minister 2 Supplementary Questions which he did not answer at all. They were as follows:

1. Did the MOF check on the said consultancy agreement between BianFikir and MAS as the agreements may have contained for payments of commission of 2% on the then total assets of MAS that worth many billion of RM in 2002 and other costs?

2. Does  the MOF intends to come out with a new guideline or policy that all GLCs are not allowed to enter into an agreement with Non-Disclosure Clause on its consultancy fees, commission paid and other costs, and the name of the companies involved in  the consultancy agreement or any other agreements.

The above two Supplementary Questions were not answered by the said Deputy Minister. This matter had not ended. It will be pursued until the little Napoleons in Khaznah tell us the truth. What was the total consultancy fees inclusive of commissions and other costs for the Project WAU.

Please read an interesting article by OutSyed The Box, in HERE.