WHO IS THE HIDDEN HAND STIRRING FIRE IN MAHATHIR’S NAME? GUAN ENG DENIES ‘CHANGES’ FROM PMO IN TELEKOM CEO APPOINTMENT – ON THE CONTRARY, IF NOT FOR DR M, APPOINTMENT OF IMRI MOKHTAR WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ACCORDING TO PROCEDURE

GEORGE TOWN: There has been no change to the recent appointment of Rosli Man as Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) chairman and Imri Mokhtar as chief executive officer (CEO).

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said both appointments were made following direct orders from Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“If it was not from the PM himself, the appointments would not have been dealt with according to procedures. It was done according to procedures, since the orders came from the PM directly.

“And until now, I have not received any orders from the PM to change either the chairman or the CEO. So, for the MoF (Ministry of Finance), the chairman and CEO are still the same people.

“If there are changes to be made, a letter or note should come from the PM himself. I hope this is clear,” Lim said, adding that other related matters should be referred to the relevant minister, in this case, the Communications and Multimedia Minister.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia on Friday, TM had said that Rosli had received a request from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to defer the appointment of the group’s CEO.

It was reported that Rosli had refused to proceed with the appointment of Imri as its CEO, despite the decision to approve Imri’s appointment by TM’s special shareholder, the Minister of Finance Inc.

TM had said that its board of directors had recommended the appointment of Imri as its CEO to the MoF.

Lim explained that any request or demand from second or third sources are invalid, and would not be recognised by the MoF.

“For the MoF, we act according to orders from the PM,” he added.

Lim was met during a visit to the Penang Digital Library here, this afternoon.

On a separate matter, Lim urged the 300,000 eligible recipients of the Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH), whose financial aid is yet to be credited due to incorrect banking details, to provide the authorities with accurate information.

A total of three million eligible BSH beneficiaries received their financial aid yesterday during the second phase of disbursement.

For BSH 2019, payment for married male recipients aged 59 and below would be channelled to their wives’ accounts. However, a handful of female BSH 2019 beneficiaries had registered using their husband’s bank account, and this had caused failure in payment.

NST