This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 4, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: The resumption of duty by Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd’s (FGV) suspended chieftain Datuk Zakaria Arshad seems to be hanging in the balance.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the plantation group announced that its chief financial officer (CFO) Ahmad Tifli Mohd Talha will resume duty today. However, the announcement did not mention the status of Zakaria.

It is learnt that the two other executives — Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd senior general manager Kamarzaman Abd Karim and FGV Trading Sdn Bhd chief executive officer (CEO) Ahmad Salman Omar — had resumed their duties last week.

To recap, four top executives — Zakaria, Ahmad Tifli, Kamarzaman and Ahmad Salman — were on forced leave since early June. Zakaria and Ahmad Tifli were served show-cause letters. Subsequently, FGV set up a domestic inquiry panel on purported wrongdoings in business dealings between the group’s subsidiary Delima Oil Products and Afghanistan-based Safitex Trading

LLC.

Since 2015, Safitex’s debt has swelled to US$11.7 million, above FGV’s allocated credit limit.

Zakaria was appointed to the helm of FGV on April 1 last year, taking over Datuk Mohd Emir Mavani Abdullah whose contract expired at the end of March.

The deadline for the domestic inquiry panel’s findings to be published has been extended several times.

On Sept 5, FGV told Bursa that the domestic inquiry proceedings on the group president and CEO had resumed. “The independent domestic inquiry panel is expected to deliver its decision by early next week, as one of the panel members had to leave for an official trip overseas this evening (yesterday),” it added.

Currently, all eyes are on how the newly appointed chairman Datuk Wira Azhar Abdul Hamid would handle the matter.

There are high expectations on Azhar, regarded as a veteran in the plantation business.