Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 1): Pembinaan PFI Sdn Bhd, a special purpose vehicle of the government, has recorded a debt of RM2.66 billion for FY2013, said Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

"Pembinaan PFI Sdn Bhd is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of the government, owned by the Ministry of Finance (Inc), was set up on September 28, 2006.

"The purpose of setting up the company is to obtain funds to pay for projects and programmes identified by the government.

"The audited financial accounts for PPFI for the year ended December 31, 2013, has been filed with the Companies Commission of Malaysia on March 4, 2015, and the total debt is RM26,609.6 million," said Najib to parliament in reply to a question by MP Serdang Ong Kian Ming.

Ong had asked Najib yesterday why the financial accounts for the year 2013 had not been filed with the commission.

To recap, last month Ong had urged the Public Accounts Committee to question Treasury secretary-general and Pembinaan PFI director Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah on where RM17.4 billion of the company's spending had gone to, as it was not recorded in the Auditor-General's (A-G) Report.

"The Auditor-General reported that at the end of 2013, RM18.6 billion from the original RM20 billion loan from EPF (Employees Provident Fund) had been spent by Pembinaan PFI.

"But the amount of actual spending on the projects listed in the A-G’s report only came up to RM1.2 billion. Where did the rest of the RM17.4 billion spending go?" he queried when talking to reporters recently.

Ong also said Pembinaan PFI first took a RM20 billion loan from the EPF in August 2007, and it was due to be paid in full, with interest, in August 2012.

But the loan was restructured in August 2012 to payments of twice a year for 15 years with the money coming from the Federal Land Commissioner (FLC) which leased federal land to Pembinaan PFI and then paid rental for this land to Pembinaan PFI as part of a lease-back agreement, he said.

Ong also pointed out that Pembinaan PFI had taken out another RM19.5 billion loan from EPF last year, saying this raised questions on whether it could repay the loan as it had racked up liabilities of RM27.9 billion as of 2012.

Pembinaan PFI is 99.9% owned by Finance Ministry Incorporated. The Federal Land Commission (FLC) holds one share in Pembinaan PFI.

According to the 2013 Auditor-General’s report (series 3), Pembinaan PFI had the third highest liabilities among all government-owned entities at the end of 2012.

A report by The Edge revealed that Pembinaan PFI was set up to disburse RM20 billion worth of spending under the 9th Malaysian Plan (2006-2010), with a preference to be given to small-scale Bumiputera contractors for PFI contracts.

 

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