KOTA KINABALU: As far as Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan is concerned, he has already apologised publicly for an unintentional misleading statement regarding Hoch Standard Pte Ltd at the state assembly in December.
Jeffrey said he issued a written apology to state assembly Speaker Datuk Kadzim Yahya, who read the statement in the assembly on Monday (July 18).
“That (written statement) is the public apology,” he told a press conference after an event here on Friday (July 22), in response to calls for him to make a public apology on the matter.
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Last year, Jeffrey had said that the paid-up capital of the Singapore-based company appointed to oversee the controversial Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) deal was US$10mil (RM44.51mil).
He later amended his statement in a letter of apology to the Speaker in April, explaining that he had misunderstood the information and gave an inaccurate statement in the state assembly at that time.
Tungku assemblyman Assaffal Alian and Parti Warisan supreme council member Azhar Matussin later urged Jeffrey to publicly apologise, but he did not respond to their calls.
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At Friday's press conference, he said the matter stemmed from someone making the wrong assumption that funds in the company's bank account were paid-up capital.
“So I'll just leave (it) at that,” he said.
Jeffrey also explained that Hoch Standard was a special-purpose vehicle that did not have to be like a conventional company that required a large sum of paid-up capital.
“It networks all over the world,” he said, adding that the special-purpose vehicle was backed by financial institutions.
