Felda accused of having interstate physical meetings in breach of SOP

 

The Federal Land Development Agency (Felda) is accused of hosting physical meetings between representatives of different states, in breach of standard operating procedures (SOP)under the National Recovery Plan (NRP).

Several physical meetings were held involving settlers and Felda staff, an insider told Malaysiakini on condition of anonymity.

They include about a dozen participants per meeting, with one allegedly involving a luncheon at Menara Felda, Kuala Lumpur, the insider said.

The insider said he is speaking out because he feared for the safety of Felda staff and settlers because a number of Felda staff have been infected with Covid-19.

Malaysiakini is unable to verify claims of a luncheon session at Menara Felda involving settlers from out of state, or the Covid-19 status of the agency's staff.

Felda's Public Relations Department and Felda chairperson Idris Jusoh's office declined to respond to Malaysiakini's queries.

However, checks on various Felda regional social media sites found the agency has held several in-person information sessions for groups of settlers in various states, including Pahang and Terengganu, in the past few weeks.

These states are in Phase 2 of the NRP, where all meetings must be done virtually and in-person seminars are not allowed.

Information sessions are part of Felda's debt management programme

The information sessions were part of a nationwide effort to brief settlers on  Felda's programme to streamline the settlers' outstanding debts with the agency.

It said up to July 3, 77,565 settlers have signed on to the programme.

Felda said settlers who do not live at settlements can make an appointment for a physical meeting to sign documents, while those unable to do so can arrange for the documents to be sent over by post.

Videos uploaded on various Felda regional division Facebook pages show that information sessions were held with small groups of settlers, while others were held on a one-on-one basis.

Attendees wore face masks in all the meetings shown in the videos.

One information session held at Felda Mempaga, Pahang, was attended by Felda's deputy director Amir Hamdan Yusof.

According to a Facebook posting by Felda Wilayah Mempaga (above), the information session was "conducted according to SOP" at the Mempaga 01, 02 and 03 offices.

However, Pahang is in Phase 2 of the NRP, where all physical meetings are barred.

A photograph circulating among Felda staff, allegedly of the information session in Mempaga, showed about 20 participants in face masks sitting around a table in a relatively small meeting room.

Local police not investigating

When contacted, Bentong district police chief Zaiham Mohd Kahar said police are not investigating the matter in Felda Mempaga as no complaint was lodged.

Calls to Felda Mempaga went unanswered.

In an internal group text conversation sighted by Malaysiakini, staff commenting on the photo of the Mempaga meeting expressed concern that such meetings are taking place despite coronavirus cases being reported among Felda staff.

It was also alleged in the group that staff were instructed by their superiors not to share the photo of the physical meeting with the public.

Interstate travel has been banned nationwide since June 1 to curb the spread of Covid-19.

However, clusters continue to be traced to interstate travellers, including those who abuse permits to travel for work.

While the Klang Valley remains the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak, various other states have started to record triple-digit daily cases, with much of the spike blamed on the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus.

For example, yesterday (Aug 5), Pahang and Terengganu, where the Felda information sessions were held, recorded 501 and 426 cases each.

In contrast, on July 5, Pahang recorded 312 cases while Terengganu recorded just 17 cases. - Mkini