Isa: Decision to suspend Zakaria made by board

KUALA LUMPUR: Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad (pic) has maintained that the decision to suspend FGV group president and CEO Datuk Zakaria Arshad was made by the FGV board and “not by me alone”.

Yesterday, Zakaria was issued a letter signed by Isa asking him to take an indefinite leave of absence with immediate effect.

Isa told a press conference here that FGV’s internal audit team is doing a thorough probe on the alleged irregularities in the business transactions between FGV subsidiary Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd and Afghan company Safitex.

He said FGV external audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers recently detected several irregularities including breach of procedure and late payment default in the trade between Delima Oil and Safitex, while FGV’s own internal audit found similar irregularities.

“Therefore, the FGV board has decided to tell Zakaria together with three other officers to go on leave, namely FGV chief financial officer Ahmad Tifli Mohd Talha, FGV Trading chief executive officer Ahmad Salman Omar and Delima Oil Products senior general manager Kamarzaman Abd Karim, given the ongoing internal investigation.

“In order for our in-depth internal investigation to be carried out without interruption, Zakaria and the rest will need to take a leave of absence,” he said.

However, business will go on as usual, Isa added.

In Zakaria’s absence, Isa said FGV directors Datuk Dr Omar Salim and Datuk Mohd Zafer Mohd Hashim, together with FGV head of Logistics Cluster Azman Ahmad, will take over the duties/functions of FGV group president and CEO.

FGV group financial controller Aznur Kama Azmir has been appointed interim FGV Group CFO.

Meanwhile, Zakaria has denied breaching corporate governance practices to allegedly allow Safitex to buy palm oil products without a letter of credit, which reportedly resulted in delayed payments to the FGV unit.

He pointed out that the credit facility had been offered to Safitex before his appointment as group president/CEO in April last year.

Asked to comment on this, Isa said Zakaria had made it messy in jumping the gun by making a public statement on this matter.