There’s a new corporate name in town, Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s former political secretary, now associated with listed technology player HeiTech Padu Bhd.
HeiTech Padu is now a rising star, fast winning large contracts and seems poised to win an RM1 billion Immigration Department IT contract as well.
The game is old though, finessed by Umno Baru of patronage, intermediaries, and contracts given indiscriminately to those connected - never mind their ability - so long as they have the right links with the right people.
The new part is that there is a political operative from within PKR whose only claim to corporate ability, despite limited vague experiences for over a decade in the corporate arena, is connections - that may be new for a PKR politician.
Last year, Farhash claimed to have given up politics. At 41 and without much going by the way of relevant experience, not only has he become executive chairperson of two listed companies, he is the chairperson of another and a substantial shareholder of listed tech provider HeiTech Padu, which recently secured an RM190 million contract and is tipped to secure a further RM1 billion one.
What is significant is that Farhash was Anwar’s political secretary before he ostensibly quit politics in favour of business. But quitting politics seems to have opened wide other doors for him.
Connecting the dots
He has charted an unbelievably meteoric rise in his corporate career in a short few months, coinciding remarkably with Anwar’s ascension to the post of prime minister in November 2022. It is interesting to track his rapid ascent up the corporate ladder.
On Dec 27, 2022, he became the executive chairperson of Apex Equity Holdings Bhd, a troubled previously family-owned stock-broking company where there is a shareholder feud going on. Read about the problems here.
That should have legitimately raised eyebrows - what was a 41-year-old doing as executive chairperson of this group? This is what Apex had to say about him:
“Farhash brings with him more than a decade’s worth of experience in the field of business, consultancy, and advisory. On the business front, his illustrious career spans a broad range of sectors which includes construction, technology, hotel, food & beverage.
“Farhash is or has been a director and/or shareholder in at least ten private companies which include Swag Technologies Sdn Bhd, Salvador & Sons Sdn Bhd, and Pacific Samudera Sdn Bhd. He was also an independent non-executive director of Blumont Group Limited (now known as Southern Archipelago Limited) from 2014 to 2016, a public-listed company listed on the Mainboard of the Singapore Exchange (SGX).”
There is no mention of any executive position anywhere that would justify parachuting him to the top executive position in Apex Equity. Incidentally, Blumont shares were pushed up in 2013 as part of a massive share manipulation exercise in 2013. Read about it here.
And then, days later on Jan 3, 2023, he was appointed non-independent, non-executive chairperson of convenience stores operator 7-Eleven Malaysia Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of B-Retail. The Berjaya group is controlled by businessperson Vincent Tan.
According to news reports, Berjaya founder Vincent filed a lawsuit in July last year against the Finance Ministry and Spanco Sdn Bhd regarding the termination of a letter of intent, alleging that the contract was awarded to Spanco despite their higher bid. Vincent questioned why the government had agreed to pay RM700 million more to Spanco.
On April 3 this year, Spanco executive director Robert Tan Hua Choon was charged with cheating the government over a contract worth over RM3.9 billion by convincing the Finance Ministry that Spanco had at least 30 percent bumiputera shareholding.
Robert, a close associate of former finance minister Daim Zainuddin, pleaded not guilty. Daim headed the powerful Council of Eminent Persons formed by Dr Mahathir Mohamad during his second term as prime minister from 2018 to 2020 when the new contract was awarded to Spanco.
Anwar has said that those in previous positions of power would be investigated for corruption. Daim had been charged in court on Jan 29 this year with failing to comply with a MACC notice to declare his assets.
The sequence of events has led observers to believe that there is closeness between Anwar and Vincent, reflected through Farhash’s appointment at 7-Eleven.
On May 9 last year, Farhash became executive chairperson of Excel Force MSC Bhd, another listed company. He was now in the unusual position of being executive chairperson of two separate unlinked companies listed on Bursa Malaysia. That could be a first. How was he going to manage his time?
Contracts galore
On March 11, HeiTech Padu announced that it had obtained an extension of a contract with the Immigration Department for a year from Feb 18 for RM13.1 million.
On the same day, listed MyEG Services Bhd acquired a 14.4 percent interest in HeiTech Padu through a subsidiary.
On March 14, three days later, Farhash became a major shareholder of HeiTech Padu with a 15.91 percent stake. He later clarified that he shared ownership of the shareholding in the company, held via private vehicle Rosetta Partners Sdn Bhd, with Kelantan’s Sultan Muhammad V.
The big announcement came on April 15 - HeiTech Padu had obtained an RM190 million contract from the Road Transport Department (RTD) for three years from May.
The contract is for the maintenance and technical support for ICT Infrastructure including the vehicle and driver information system at the data centre and RTD offices.
HeiTech Padu is now said to be the frontrunner for a new Immigration Department contract which could be valued at RM1 billion.
On April 16, a day after the announcement of the RM190 million contract, HeiTech Padu announced a teaming agreement with MyEG “to form an interim collaboration to explore services in relation to the information technology industry in Malaysia.”
The three companies mentioned in this article - HeiTech Padu, Excel Force, and MyEG - are linked by a complicated web of shareholdings and directors. They are in similar businesses and appear involved in getting government contracts and splitting them among themselves.
What’s clear from all this is that a new political crony - Farhash - is on the scene. The disturbing question: Is this new unity government led by PKR operating no differently from Umno and Bersatu in the award of contracts? - Mkini
P GUNASEGARAM says some questions don’t need answers - the evidence provides them.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.