Ex-Sime GM charged with graft

JOHOR BARU, Jan 3 — Former Sime Darby Engineering Sdn Bhd operations general manager Mohd Zaki Othman has been charged with two counts of bribery at the Sessions Court here.

He is accused of accepting bribes amounting to RM55,300 related to a RM23 million contract awarded by the Pasir Gudang-based company.

This follows two civil suits filed by Sime Darby against former top executives over breach of trust and duty in several large projects.

Mohd Zaki was also named as one of five respondents in a RM338 million suit over RM2.1 billion in losses incurred in three projects along with former chief executive Datuk Seri Ahmad Zubir Murshid.

The other suit, seeking RM92.2 million in damages, also names Ahmad Zubir along with two other executives involving the Bakun Dam project.

The conglomerate’s woes first came to light in May when then-chief executive Ahmad Zubir was asked to take a leave of absence prior to the expiry of his contract following the discovery of RM964 million in cost overruns from the four energy and utilities projects.

The massive cost overruns bled the division and led to the announcement of Sime Darby’s first ever quarterly loss of RM308.6 million that same month.

In the previous corresponding quarter, Sime Darby had posted a profit of RM150.6 million.

The energy and utilities division, which contributed only 0.7 per cent to the group’s total operating profits in fiscal 2009, posted a loss of RM1.02 billion in the nine months to March, and a net loss of RM910 million for the third quarter of 2010.

The losses were the first since its formation in 2007, when it was merged with two other government-controlled plantation groups.