July 25, 2012
Pua said checks with CCM revealed that some firms have not met the required equity level stipulated in the contracts. — File pic
But the authority would not confirm if these firms include those
owned by Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan’s daughter, which federal lawmakers
previously revealed had not complied with a requirement stipulating that
their bank accounts must have at least 20 per cent of the total capital
cost of the project.
“We have checked and we know. But because of confidentiality, certain information cannot be divulged here.
“But we have checked and we realised that some (firms) have not improved their equity, some missed the milestones so some ‘letters of intent to revoke’ have [been sent] out,” SEDA chief executive officer Badriyah Abdul Malek told a public briefing today.
DAP MP Tony Pua and his PKR ally, Nurul Izzah Anwar, had recently highlighted that Mohd Sidek’s daughter, Suzi Suliana, and three others controlled 12 out of the 32 firms that had collectively won the “lion’s share” or 32.4 per cent of the country’s solar energy quota.
Pua had said that the 12 companies had jointly secured 45.9MW of the quota, which would require investments of RM367 million, based on his calculations using estimations from industry sources that each MW would require at least an RM8 million investment.
Pressing SEDA for answers during today’s briefing, Pua pointed out that information from the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) had shown that at least nine of the 12 firms in question only had a paid-up capital of RM100, more than six months after the contracts were awarded.
“It can be an RM2 company when you apply. Fair enough, you set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV)... but post-application, when they are successful, they (the applicants) are supposed to top up paid-up capital to a minimum of RM200,000.
“But as of last week, it was only RM100. So why have they (the concessions) not been revoked yet?” he asked.
Responding, Badriyah confirmed the existence of the requirements, saying that applicants that did not meet the required equity levels would be running afoul of the authority’s rules.
SEDA chief operating officer Ali Askar Mohd Sher agreed and reiterated that the authority is already “in the process of revoking” some of the feed-in approvals (FiA).
“[We] have already revoked and are in the process of revoking (more). Do I need to make myself more clear than that?” he said.
MORE TO COME
“We have checked and we know. But because of confidentiality, certain information cannot be divulged here.
“But we have checked and we realised that some (firms) have not improved their equity, some missed the milestones so some ‘letters of intent to revoke’ have [been sent] out,” SEDA chief executive officer Badriyah Abdul Malek told a public briefing today.
DAP MP Tony Pua and his PKR ally, Nurul Izzah Anwar, had recently highlighted that Mohd Sidek’s daughter, Suzi Suliana, and three others controlled 12 out of the 32 firms that had collectively won the “lion’s share” or 32.4 per cent of the country’s solar energy quota.
Pua had said that the 12 companies had jointly secured 45.9MW of the quota, which would require investments of RM367 million, based on his calculations using estimations from industry sources that each MW would require at least an RM8 million investment.
Pressing SEDA for answers during today’s briefing, Pua pointed out that information from the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) had shown that at least nine of the 12 firms in question only had a paid-up capital of RM100, more than six months after the contracts were awarded.
“It can be an RM2 company when you apply. Fair enough, you set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV)... but post-application, when they are successful, they (the applicants) are supposed to top up paid-up capital to a minimum of RM200,000.
“But as of last week, it was only RM100. So why have they (the concessions) not been revoked yet?” he asked.
Responding, Badriyah confirmed the existence of the requirements, saying that applicants that did not meet the required equity levels would be running afoul of the authority’s rules.
SEDA chief operating officer Ali Askar Mohd Sher agreed and reiterated that the authority is already “in the process of revoking” some of the feed-in approvals (FiA).
“[We] have already revoked and are in the process of revoking (more). Do I need to make myself more clear than that?” he said.
MORE TO COME
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