KOTA KINABALU: Opposition Parti Warisan Sabah president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal dismisses claims that Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) financial woes stemmed from when it was in government.
"It is misleading," he said over allegations spread on social media claiming that the Warisan-led state administration had led to SFI's bankruptcy.
The former Sabah chief minister said the company was already under receivership and owned by a bank before Warisan took over the state government in 2018.
He said the state government had no operational controls over SFI, which had debts exceeding RM1bil.
Shafie said the Warisan-led state government focused on trying revive SFI, which was once Malaysia’s largest integrated pulp and paper mill that ceased operations in 2016 after years of financial trouble and mismanagement.
Speaking to reporters after a breaking of fast event in Sandakan on Sunday (March 23), Shafie said that the Warisan government had rejected any proposals focused only on logging in SFI concession areas but wanted to find long-term industrial revival instead.
He said a major China company involved in pulp and paper production in Shenzhen had shown interest in rescuing SFI.
He said the then state government was in discussions with the company for a proposed joint venture where the investor would absorb the company’s debt, revive operations and offer 30% equity to the state without using government funds.
Shafie said the state government only had authority over timber extraction from SFI’s 283,280ha acacia concession.
"I didn’t want to simply sign off on logging unless there was a plan to revive the industry," he said in dismissing social media claims that SFI spiralled into bankruptcy during the period of Warisan's rule (2018-20).
Shafie said the state government made the decision to continue paying SFI workers' salaries that worked out to about RM1mil even though the state did not own the company.
"We didn’t own SFI. All we had was signing authority over the timber. But if there was a serious investor willing to settle the RM1bil plus debt, why wouldn’t we go for that?" Shafie said.
Recently, liquidators have filed actions against the state government to dispute the state's move to compulsorily acquire of SFI’s land and assets in 2022.
Sabah attorney general Datuk Brenndon Keith Soh had denied the allegations and said the state would defend its position on the matter.
