Business

Published: Thursday June 21, 2012 MYT 4:53:00 PM

MAS only paid Binafikir RM1.69m as consultancy fee


KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) paid BinaFikir Sdn Bhd RM1.697mil in 2002 for the airline's financial restructuring under its widespread assets unbundling (WAU) project, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai.

He said the total consultancy fee paid to BinaFikir for the WAU project was actually 117 times lower than the RM200mil alleged by Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong (Independent).

Lim said the WAU project was approved by MAS shareholders in an extraordinary general meeting on Nov 5 2002.

"It was aimed at strengthening MAS' finances to enable the management to implement a broader restructuring," he said in reply to a question from Wee at the Dewan Rakyat here on Thursday.

Lim said as a company needs to make a profit from its operations, financial restructuring cannot be a permanent solution.

Wee had also wanted to know whether the government's investment holding arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd or any government-linked company like MAS, which uses public money, has the right to withhold information from Parliament by hiding behind a confidentiality clause.

Lim replied that the non-disclosure clause is standard procedure in any contract to protect the interests of the parties involved.

"Disclosing any information classified as confidential in any contract by any quarter without the approval of the other parties involved in the contract could bring legal implications to the party disclosing the information for not adhering to the confidentiality pledge," he said.

However, Lim said, MAS had obtained approval from the appropriate quarter to disclose information to Parliament on several matters including the list of 12 companies involved in the fuel hedging contract with MAS.

The companies are CIMB Bank Bhd, Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Bhd, Barclays Bank PLC, Citibank Malaysia (L) Labuan, Deutsche Bank, J. Aron & Co (Sin) Pte (Goldman Sachs), J.P. Morgan Chase, Mitsui Energy Risk Mgt (Mitsui), Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc, Petro Diamond Risk Mgt Ltd (Mitsubishi Corp), SocieteGenerale and UBS Investment Bank. - BERNAMA

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