KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s controversial carbon credit deal may head to the courts as a civil society coalition comprising 13 NGOs is seeking a judicial review over the agreement signed with Singapore-based Hoch Standard Pte Ltd.
The issue has taken a fresh twist with the coalition asking to identify the real owners of a British Virgin Islands-based offshore company, Lionsgate, that now fully owns Hoch Standard.
The NGOs believe that a judicial review of the agreement will not only provide answers to the real owners but also whether the Sabah government has complied with all requirements before signing the deal.
The group claimed that the deal involving two million hectares of Sabah’s forest reserve for a term of 100 years with Hoch Standard did not comply with the procedures and relevant laws when the Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) was signed on Oct 28, 2021.
According to Cynthia Ong of Land Empowerment Animal People (LEAP) – one of the signatories of the coalition – they are seeking the judicial review following allegations that the state’s natural assets are being handed over to private interests without due regard to procedures and accountability.
The group is against the deal, which was initially seen to have been “shelved” following a February 2022 statement by the Sabah Attorney General that the agreement was not legally feasible.
On Tuesday, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said they were fine-tuning the NCA as the state was keen to earn revenue from the sales of carbon.
The coalition said it is alarmed that the Sabah government is still exploring implementation of the NCA.
“The controversial NCA, long believed to be defunct, would give away monopoly rights to Sabah’s natural heritage of over two million hectares for 100 years (renewable), including for carbon trading,” the coalition said in a statement yesterday.
It claimed that copies of the alleged contract have been widely circulated on social media and criticised by experts as technically flawed and biased in favour of the company over Sabah’s interests.
It also raised concerns over Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan’s recent statement that the state Attorney General’s 2021 objections to the deal had never been presented to the state Cabinet or the NCA Steering and Management Committee.
The coalition said it remains disturbed that a contract of this scale would be awarded in secret to a new entity in a foreign country without commercial records or evidence of expertise in carbon trading or managing natural capital.
“One focus in the judicial review will be on discovering whether the Sabah government ever undertook and applied the required due diligence, prior to or since signing the contract,” Sabah Environmental Protection Association (Sepa) president Alexander Yee said.
Hoch Standard Pte Ltd, he added, is listed by the official Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of the Singapore Government as entirely owned by a new entity called Lionsgate Ltd in the British Virgin Islands.
He also noted the lack of transparency from the actual owners of Lionsgate.
