KOTA KINABALU: Sabah state assembly Speaker Datuk Seri Kadzim Yahya will decide whether or not state Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun has to withdraw any alleged claim that Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal had considered raising sukuk funds to bail out a state-owned petroleum company in 2020.
The Speaker said he would go through the Hansard and make a decision on Thursday (July 11).
He made the ruling after Masidi and Shafie (Warisan-Senallang) argued during the assembly meeting on Wednesday (July 10).
Their dispute was over the raising of RM900mil in sukuk bonds by SMJ Energy Sdn Bhd (SMJE) to pay of a RM700mil bank loan for state-owned Sabah International Petroleum Sdn Bhd (SIP).
Masidi had alleged that Shafie, when he was chief minister from 2018 to 2020, had also considered raising bonds to pay off SIP’s loans to state-owned Sabah Development Bank (SDBank).
In asking Masidi to withdraw the claim, Shafie said he never raised the funds to pay off SIP’s loans, but instead ordered a RM15bil bond that would stretch over 20 years for a port project in Kudat, as well as the Papar Dam.
“This needs to be corrected and I want the Finance Minister to withdraw his allegation.
"He also said that I blamed the GRS (Gabungan Rakyat Sabah) government, but in fact, we know that it did not happen during GRS or Warisan's time. It was the previous (Barisan) government,” Shafie said.
He also claimed that he never attended the meeting on the bond, but did not dismiss the possibility that a “position paper” had been forwarded to him although there was no decision made.
Masidi insisted that whatever he said in the House was referring to bank statements and the auditor’s report.
“I have no intention to belittle Senallang, he is my friend. For all you know, as what you (Shafie) have said, you and the current chief minister (Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor) are not to be blamed because you may not have known what was happening,” he said in offering himself to be referred to the Privileges Committee if he had breached any member's privileges.
Shafie, who is Parti Warisan president, has been questioning the Sukuk bond raised by SMJE to rescue SIP, which in turn helped pay off the mounting debts of SDBank.
He also expressed his concerns to the assembly, warning that with SMJE raising public funds, it could potentially become another 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Masidi contended that 1MDB and SMJE were completely different issues, the former involving misappropriation of funds and the latter focused on restructuring government-linked companies.
"The two are worlds apart," he added.
The issue continued during question time, with debates over raising the sukuk fund to pay off SIP loans.
Masidi argued that it was more cost-effective to repay the loans through the 4% sukuk interest than the bank's 7%.
“It’s easy, I am not an economist like YB (Senallang), but I have a ‘buku tiga lima’ (555 book) that can count one plus one equals two,” he said, referring to the ubiquitous pocket notebook used to record debts at provision shops and other establishments.
