Shame On You! Khalid, Talam & Tony Pua!

The recent handling of the questions and possible issues raised by Chua Tee Yong pertaining to the Talam-Selangor Government debt recovery exercise has so far, exposed the arrogance and ignorance of the Pakatan Rakyat leadership, apart from questionable process of valuation and the value arrived at for the 13 settlement assets.

Instead of explaining the questions in a truthful and transparent manner, Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim has resorted to threats of legal action to shut up the people, which include both the BN and PR supporters as well as people of the third force.

DAP MP Tony Pua, on the other hand has behaved unnecessarily arrogant to taunt the people with curiosity and doubt on the matter so that all could shut up to avoid looking stupid in financial matters.

However, to the fraternity of accountants and corporate finance advisors and people with common sense in general, the issue is clear cut:- Overvaluation and the lack of due diligence on the acquisition of land/property before concluding the deal.

First, lets recap some of the misleading arguments put forward as defences so far by the PR leaderships:-

1. The debt was never recorded and was at the risk of being “forgotten”, therefore, the PR leadership efforts in “uncovering” it should be lauded, and relying on this argument, PR leaders are suggesting that whatever and howsoever improper and illogical the mechanism of recovering the debts should be justified.

This is certainly not the right way to answer. Besides that, have the 3 state companies which are subject to annual audits by independent and professional auditors actually forgotten the debts? Particularly, one of the 3 GLCs is a listed company which is required to submit the audited accounts and annual report to Bursa Malaysia annually.

If the claim is true, why have we not seen legal action initiated against the Board of directors, audit committees, management and/or auditors of the 3 state GLCs in the four years since PR took over the government?

It suffices to conclude that it is disappointing to observe politicians resorting to lies and misleading statements to answer questions which interest the public at large.

There is only a thin line between lies and misstatement and only Tony Pua can tell in this context.

2. Talam has never received a single sen from the settlement exercise as claimed by the PR leadership.

This is an insult to all with common sense. If Talam have not received even a cent just because the millions of ringgit in payments are paid by Selangor Government direct to Talam’s lenders, we all should go back to the stone age to insist on seeing the physical cash changing from one hand to the other to ensure payments to creditors are actually received by the creditors.

Again, one wonders whether this is a genuine misstatement because PR leaders are innocently ignorant about the fact that Talam is the borrower, hence is obligated to repay or it is simply a lie capitalizing on the trust given to PR leadership during and after the political tsunami.

3. It has been defended also that the State Government has underpaid RM9.1m to Talam instead of over paying by RM42m.

Again, there is an underlying assumption made by the PR leadership in making this statement. The sad story is in making this assumption; the PR leaders have shown nothing but ignorance.

It is not difficult for anyone in the street to see that the valuation arrived at by the valuer is appointed by Talam.

Hence, there is no such defence of “independence” as claimed by PR leaders as well as Talam even though the professionalism of the valuer should not be questioned.

In promoting and relying on the argument that the valuation was done independently, all the parties mentioned have misled the public that the appointment is done by a party other than Talam or State Government such as Bursa or Securities Commission.

Interestingly and fortunately, Talam had later made an announcement that both SC and Bursa have never approved the valuation as previously suggested.

But unfortunately, people have been misled and the platform of public announcement by companies listed in Bursa Malaysia may seem to have been abused.

There is only thin line between an unintentional misstatement and a lie. In this context, only the parties involved could enlighten the people in the street.

WE SAY, SHAME ON YOU – KHALID, TALAM AND TONY PUA!

Source: Stop The Lies

KhalidTalam CorpTony Pua