MP SPEAKS I nearly fell off my chair when I read the news reports that the Puncak Niaga (PNHB) Minority Shareholders Watchdog Group (MSWG) chairperson, Muhammad Imran Abdullah, claimed that its executive chairperson, Rozali Ismail, fully deserved his RM33.4 million payout.
Imran (right) told reporters that “it was tabled at the PNHB’s annual general meeting, we approved it” and added that “we are only concerned with our dividends and returns”, without elaborating further.
This group, which was interestingly formed coincidentally only a week ago, did not seem to notice that Puncak Niaga is under serious financial stress and has not performed well over the last five years.
On paper, PNHB recorded a net profit of RM233 million for the financial year 2012. However, it should be highlighted that PNHB achieved profitability only because it recognised a RM1,024 million “water tariff compensation” from the Selangor state government.
This compensation has never been agreed to by the state government because PNHB and its subsidiary, Syabas, had failed to fulfil its obligations under the water concession agreement. The failure includes but is not limited to Syabas’s failure to repair and replace ageing pipes, and consequently to reduce the percentage of non-revenue water in Selangor.
In fact, the “compensation” is being disputed in court and hence should not be recognised as “revenue” for PNHB in the first place.
Without the compensation payment, PNHB would have made massive losses of up to RM791 million.
For the previous financial year 2011, PNHB made net losses of RM83 million, despite recognising RM458 million in “water tariff compensation”. Hence the total losses without the “compensation” would have been as high as RM541 million. The above figures are found in the PNHB Annual Report 2012, on pages 150 and 198 respectively.
Going back further, PNSB made losses of RM92 million (2010) after recognising “water tariff compensation” of RM419 million (2010). The above figures are summarised in the Table 1 below.
Therefore, without recognising the disputed and highly controversial “water tariff compensation” from the Selangor state government, the losses in PNHB in 2012 would have been RM250 million worse than in 2011.
As such, PNSB has been making consistent losses in recent year and only managed to eke out a profit in 2012 purely because of a massive increase of recognised “water tariff compensation” from less than RM500 million in prior years to a massive RM1,024 million in 2012.
‘Group serving whose interests?’
Given such underlying performance in the company, does the MSWG really believe that Rozali fully deserves the RM33.4 million payoff? In fact under normal MSWG circumstances, they should logically be urging that the company’s top management be axed, and not in this case, lucratively rewarded!
Or is the MSWG which was only hastily formed last week meant to serve the interests of PNHB’s largest shareholder, and its executive chairperson in the light of an impending takeover of PNHB by the Selangor government?
The RM33.4 million payout to Rozali is a serious issue because it involves Puncak Niaga and its subsidiary, Syabas, which have been awarded monopolistic concessions by the Barisan Nasional governments to operate water treatment plants and to distribute water in the state of Selangor.
Water is an essential basic utility for every single Malaysian and we are completely flabbergasted that these concessions have been abused to outrageously enrich inidividuals who are cronies of the BN regime.
Therefore Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (Span) must investigate this payout immediately and take all necessary actions to protect the interest of Malaysians. In fact, the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry must immediately stop all extraordinary and non-operational payouts in the water concessionaires pending the restructuring exercise, particularly if these companies still owe billions of ringgit to the federal government.
Imran (right) told reporters that “it was tabled at the PNHB’s annual general meeting, we approved it” and added that “we are only concerned with our dividends and returns”, without elaborating further.This group, which was interestingly formed coincidentally only a week ago, did not seem to notice that Puncak Niaga is under serious financial stress and has not performed well over the last five years.
On paper, PNHB recorded a net profit of RM233 million for the financial year 2012. However, it should be highlighted that PNHB achieved profitability only because it recognised a RM1,024 million “water tariff compensation” from the Selangor state government.
This compensation has never been agreed to by the state government because PNHB and its subsidiary, Syabas, had failed to fulfil its obligations under the water concession agreement. The failure includes but is not limited to Syabas’s failure to repair and replace ageing pipes, and consequently to reduce the percentage of non-revenue water in Selangor.
In fact, the “compensation” is being disputed in court and hence should not be recognised as “revenue” for PNHB in the first place.
Without the compensation payment, PNHB would have made massive losses of up to RM791 million.
For the previous financial year 2011, PNHB made net losses of RM83 million, despite recognising RM458 million in “water tariff compensation”. Hence the total losses without the “compensation” would have been as high as RM541 million. The above figures are found in the PNHB Annual Report 2012, on pages 150 and 198 respectively.
Going back further, PNSB made losses of RM92 million (2010) after recognising “water tariff compensation” of RM419 million (2010). The above figures are summarised in the Table 1 below.
Therefore, without recognising the disputed and highly controversial “water tariff compensation” from the Selangor state government, the losses in PNHB in 2012 would have been RM250 million worse than in 2011.As such, PNSB has been making consistent losses in recent year and only managed to eke out a profit in 2012 purely because of a massive increase of recognised “water tariff compensation” from less than RM500 million in prior years to a massive RM1,024 million in 2012.
‘Group serving whose interests?’
Given such underlying performance in the company, does the MSWG really believe that Rozali fully deserves the RM33.4 million payoff? In fact under normal MSWG circumstances, they should logically be urging that the company’s top management be axed, and not in this case, lucratively rewarded!
Or is the MSWG which was only hastily formed last week meant to serve the interests of PNHB’s largest shareholder, and its executive chairperson in the light of an impending takeover of PNHB by the Selangor government?
The RM33.4 million payout to Rozali is a serious issue because it involves Puncak Niaga and its subsidiary, Syabas, which have been awarded monopolistic concessions by the Barisan Nasional governments to operate water treatment plants and to distribute water in the state of Selangor. Water is an essential basic utility for every single Malaysian and we are completely flabbergasted that these concessions have been abused to outrageously enrich inidividuals who are cronies of the BN regime.
Therefore Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (Span) must investigate this payout immediately and take all necessary actions to protect the interest of Malaysians. In fact, the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry must immediately stop all extraordinary and non-operational payouts in the water concessionaires pending the restructuring exercise, particularly if these companies still owe billions of ringgit to the federal government.
TONY PUA is the DAP parliamentarian for Petaling Jaya Utara.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.