KUALA LUMPUR (June 22): Instead of the 40 more days he asked for, suspended president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) Datuk Zakaria Arshad has only another three days to reply to a show-cause letter regarding alleged procedural improprieties involving credit limit extension given to a customer by a subsidiary of the plantation group. 

The board originally gave him until Tuesday to reply to the show-cause letters it issued to both Zakaria and FGV chief financial officer Ahmad Tifli Mohd Talha. 

While Ahmad Tifli managed to give his reply on Tuesday, Zakaria asked for upto July 30 to give his response.

"The board of directors of FGV wishes to inform that the board had considered the group president/CEO’s request for an extension of time to reply the show-cause letter by July 30, 2017, and the board had agreed to grant him until noon on Friday (today) to submit an explanation to the show-cause letter," FGV said in a Bursa Malaysia filing today.  

Both Zakaria and Ahmad Tifli will continue to be on a leave of absence until further notice, the filing added.

The show-cause letters were first issued by FGV's board on June 13, after the company’s internal audit found procedural improprieties in giving credit limit extension to Safitex Trading LLC by FGV's 72%-owned unit, Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd (DOP).

The extension, allegedly given twice without evaluation by a credit control committee, resulted in Safitex's debt to DOP balooning to US$11.7 million. Zakaria had earlier said Safitex could pay off the outstanding debt by end-June.

FGV suspended Zakaria and Ahmad Tifli on June 6, together with two others — namely DOP senior general manager Kamarzaman Abd Karim and FGV Trading Sdn Bhd CEO Ahmad Salman Omar, after Zakaria refused to quit his post despite being requested to do so by then FGV non-executive chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad on May 31, following Safitex’s delayed payments to DOP.

In return, Zakaria claimed there were corruption and abuse of power in FGV, which triggered a probe by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) on June 7.

The MACC has since seized documents from the offices of Zakaria and Ahmad Tifli in the FGV headquarters and questioned over 60 officers, including Mohd Isa and his wife Puan Sri Bibi Sharliza Mohd Khalid, who does not hold any position in the palm oil giant.

On Monday, the Prime Minister’s Office told FGV’s board to continue with its disciplinary actions on the four suspended officers and said an independent report by former minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala on FGV, had found "sufficient facts and reasonable grounds" to initiate the proceedings against them.

On the same day, Mohd Isa quit FGV's board and was appointed acting chairman of the Land Public Transport Commission, while FGV independent non-executive director Tan Sri Dr Sulaiman Mahbob, who is also Telekom Malaysia Bhd chairman, took on the role he had vacated in FGV.