‘Probe MAS’ ties with consultancy firm’

PlaneConsult's chairman is a director of Air Asia and MAS' decision to appoint it may create a conflict of interest, says Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong

KUALA LUMPUR: Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong today urged the finance ministry to investigate if there was a conflict of interest in national carrier Malaysia Airlines’ decision to engage PlaneConsult.

Speaking at a press conference at Parliament, the independent MP said that PlaneConsult, which was appointed in January by MAS, said it was still providing its services to AirAsia.

“PlaneConsult’s chairman Connor McCarthy is a co-founder and a director of AirAsia,” said Wee.

The appointment, Wee added, was endorsed by MAS chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya and his deputy Rashdan Yusof.

Making matters worse, Wee claimed that MAS had recently appointed an employee of PlaneConsult named Shane Nollan as its acting commercial director.

“It’s highly inappropriate to appoint an employee of a consultancy firm to a position with full executive power in MAS.

“This shows that our national carrier’s management does not have the basic understanding of conflict of interest,” said Wee.

He also said that the finance ministry should also probe whether Nollan’s decisions since being employed by MAS were made in the best interest of the company.

Wee alleged that Nollan had compromised his executive position in MAS by charging a whopping Euro 682,422.64 (RM2.8million) to the national carrier on behalf of PlaneConsult.

“This is excluding the costs of airfares from London to KLIA. They also charged Euro 9,254 in interest to MAS. Why should it charge interest? Only banks do that,” said Wee.

He urged MAS chairman Mohd Nor Yusof and his board to come clean on the matter as soon as possible. “Silence is no longer an option as this involves public funds,” said Wee.

MAS posted a loss worth RM2.5 billion earlier this year, prompting Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to review the share swap deal between the national carrier and Air Asia last August.