Shafie rubbishes bid to cut down Warisan’s timber policies

 

After being slammed for losses in timber revenue, Shafie Apdal has hit back, saying he stopped timber lords from stealing billions from the state. (Bernama pic)

KOTA KINABALU: Former Sabah chief minister Shafie Apdal has rejected claims that the previous Warisan government’s timber policies caused multimillion-ringgit losses to the state.

He was responding to claims by former chief conservator of forests Sam Mannan who alleged that Sabah lost no less than RM10 million in revenue from timber due to the Warisan government erroneously declaring that illegal logging was happening on a massive scale.

Mannan, who was removed from his post in July 2018 before his term ended, said Warisan had also erred when it seized 40,000 logs for alleged illegal felling and log extraction earlier the same month.

Shafie, however, dismissed Mannan’s allegations as an attempt to cover up for his sacking.

The Warisan president said Mannan was trying to hoodwink people into thinking that some RM10 million was “lost” from the 40,000 logs that were seized due to illegal felling and extraction.

“In reality, billions of ringgit that should have gone to the state coffers ended up in the deep pockets of a timber lord,” he said in a statement here today.

Mannan had said yesterday that there was nothing to prove the allegations of illegal felling and extraction, adding the log seizures were “most certainly a Sabah record”.

“It remains of mystery for Sabah as to how the story ended,” he said, referring to the case in July 2018, which also saw government-linked and public-listed companies becoming among more than 10 concessionaires investigated for allegedly breaching forestry laws.

“All in all, I was told that 20,000 logs perished, a value approaching RM10 million, not taking other costs into consideration,” said Mannan, who is now technical adviser (forestry) to Perikatan Nasional chief minister Hajiji Noor.

Shafie countered that highly corrupt politicians and officials in the Sabah Forestry Department during the then Barisan Nasional state government allowed billions of ringgit worth of timber to be taken out of Sabah.

“Only a certain few could reap the profits but never the state of Sabah.

“The Warisan-led government put an end to this illegal cartel and ensured the timber money was retained in its rightful place and not in Hong Kong banks chosen by these corrupt people,” he said.

The former chief minister further alleged that industry people have claimed that only a few loggers formed the cartel with the blessing of a once-prominent politician.

He also claimed that the bulk of the profits went to one timber lord who parked the billions in overseas banks. He did not name the timber lord.

Shafie added that if indeed RM10 million had been lost from one concession, it was  pittance compared to what Yayasan Sabah had lost to crooked deals.

“Serious illegal logging was the order of the day. While the kingpins got off scot-free, those caught were only small fry. What has Mannan to say about all these as after all, he was the chief conservator of forests of Sabah then?”

Meanwhile, Shafie also took Mannan to task over Yayasan Sabah’s financial standing when Warisan took over. When the Warisan government came in, Yayasan Sabah was in the red. With such large timber concessions, how did it end up being in the red?” he asked.

“Why didn’t Mannan query about this? There were lop-sided deals. The logger is the same person who buys back the logs and then exports it for profit – Yayasan Sabah never got these profits,” he said. - FMT