Kota Kinabalu: Speaker Datuk Seri Kadzim M Yahya ruled Thursday that the answer given by State Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun regarding Sabah Development Bank (SDB) when winding up the Supplementary Supply Bill 2024 Tuesday (July 9) was devoid of any ill will towards Senallang Assemblyman Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
Kadzim said he also found the procedures implemented by the Government regarding the matter raised were orderly and did not conflict with any existing legal provisions.
“YB Senallang raised several matters regarding the statement. That the Finance Minister has made malicious allegations against him.
“After examining YB Senallang’s debate speech and the answers provided by the Finance Minister, together with the State Legislative Assembly and representatives from the State Attorney-General’s Chambers, and having received an explanation from the Finance Ministry, it was found that the statement was only to answer the issues raised by YB Senallang.
“Therefore, I am satisfied that the content of the answer given does not have any malicious intent,” he said, before adjourning the sitting.
He said he had also looked into the matter raised by Merotai Assemblyman Sarifuddin Hata and had referred this matter together with the State Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Finance Ministry.
“I found that the procedures implemented by the Government regarding the matter raised (related to the Supplementary Supply Bill 2024) are orderly and do not conflict with any existing legal provisions,” he said.
However, Mohd Shafie who is Warisan President and a former Chief Minister, was still unsatisfied, asked to be given a copy of the minutes of SDB board of directors meeting mentioned by Masidi and the latter had no objection.
In the sitting on Tuesday, Masidi challenged a claim by Shafie that he (Shafie) had instructed action be taken against a SDB debtor in Johor over a RM172 million loan, saying Shafie’s claim differed from what was in the minutes of the SDB report.
Shafie had also said that the amount was borrowed during the previous Barisan Nasional State Government and not the responsibility of the Warisan-led government.
The assembly heard that altogether some RM5 billion in loans extended to peninsula borrowers from 2003 till 2018 were unrecoverable (NPL) with no evidence of action being taken against the defaulters.
Masidi said the shock discovery was after the GRS Government took over in 2020 as the losses were cleverly hidden through creative accounting.
Hence, Masidi said it was wrong for Shafie to portray that the GRS government was responsible for the losses as well as claiming that the current State Government’s efforts to raise a RM900m sukuk as tantamount to another 1MDB scandal.
On Shafie’s claim that he instructed that action be taken against the Johor borrower when he was CM, Masidi said the SDB report confirmed that the borrower was never taken to court.
Masidi said the account was a Non-Performing Loan (NPL) and contrary to Shafie’s claim, the borrower even managed to have the status changed from NPL to a Performing Loan (PL) made possible by his Warisan-Plus Government actually providing a fresh loan of RM172m to cover the overdue interest of RM172m in August 2019.
“Six months later, the same borrower went back to become a NPL,” Masidi said.
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