PADI Beras National. Bhd or BERNAS is a company where VIEW ; The entire board, including the chairman are non executive directors.
NON executive directors are individuals appointed to board of a company, to oversee policy matters and safeguard the intetest of various stakeholders in a company.
IN a nut shell, the non executive directors, are not employees of Bernas, hence they arent involved in the day to day running of Bernas.
THAT being said, the entire board of directors of Bernas are non executive directors, only they can approve the READ : the RM771 million dividend paid out to Syed Mokthar between 2020 and 2021.
WHICH brings us to the question , who are the stakeholders in Bernas. If you are in the midst of doing your MBA , or just completed one, you could rightfully argue , that we the consumers too, are stakeholders.
HOWEVER, in a strictly real life boardroom setting in Bernas, they are specifically only TWO stake holders in the company, Syed Mokthar and the entities he represents on paper, and the Government of Malaysia , due the NON DiVIDEND paying , GOLDEN SHARE owned by the MINISTER of FINANCE INC, which comes with execlusive right to VETO.
SO are both this groups REPRESENTED on BERNAS board. YES, they are. Currently, the Government representative on the Bernas board is Indera Ab Rahim Ab Rahman, who is VIEW : the Under Secretary of the Government Procurement Division at the Ministry of Finance.
WAS Indera Ab Rahim Ab Rahman, the Government representative on the Bernas board in 2020 and 2021, when the BERNAS board controversially decided to give Syed Mokthar a cash dividend of RM771 million?
THAT, I am not sure because BERNAS despite being given a few hundred million every year by the, DOES NOT PROVIDE OPEN ACCESS OF ITS ANNUAL REPORT to the public.
THERE are THREE REASONS why the RM771, million paid out to Syed Mokthar is controversial. As I had written before , READ : those dividend payment to Syed Mokthar, wiped out Bernas entire After Tax Profits from 2017, effectively meaning the billionaire didn't reinvest even ONE Ringgit of his profits back into the business.
CONTROVERSIAL too, were the timing of the dividend payment. It came at a time, when the world was hit by the COVID 19 Virus, that threatened to shut down the world, due to global lockdowns.
THOSE lockdowns, resulted READ : in Government's across the world in imposing restrictions on limiting dividend payments, as well as excessive share buy backs, so that businesses could conserve their cash.
AND here, was Syed Mokthar virtually cashing out every after tax profit Bernas had posted since 2017, seemingly with Government approval ( as the MOF representative on the Bernas board could vetoed the proposed resolution) and the REWARDING the tycoon with ANOTHER ten year EXTENSION to the BERNAS monopoly.
THE personalities on the Government side, at the time the resolutions to pay RM771 million to Syed Mokthar are another source of controversy.
WAS, Tengku Zafrul, the rookie Minister of Finance, the person responsible for the Ministry off Finance representative in the Bernas Board not to VETO the resolution?
iF this is indeed, the case, then how will the then Finance Minister now suggest, Bernas revive the paddy sector, which was beaten to the pulp by Covid 19, which now faces the climate challenge from mother nature, as well as the dangers arising due to either human greed and incompetence as can be seen in delivery and late delivery of poor paddy seeds,and pesticides.
WILL the then Finance Minister now suggest, the government keep pumping more money into Bernas, so that Syed Mokthar will continue to have God like powers in the Malay heartland, for an increasingly arrogant PAS/Perikatan Nasional to rule over Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganu and Perlis.
WHY did I specifically use the TERM ARROGANT with reference to PAS. VIEW : Despite being called all sorts of names, as well as attempting to topple him, Anwar Ibrahim rushes to meet an ailing PAS President on Friday, but apparently the Prime Minister did not get to meet the PAS president
NOW, coming back to the issue at hand , perhaps Tengku Zafrul was merely following the instructions of his immediate bosses at that time, meaning the individuals who held the position of Prime Minister.
THE record shows that between 2020 and 2021, the Prime Ministership was held by Muhyiddin Yassin , followed by his minion Ismail Sabri.
THIS in itself is a huge bone if controversy because READ : Between 2021 and 2022, Bukhary Equity a Unit owned by Syed Mokthar and his wife deposited RM195 million into Bersatu's CIMB account.
WHY would a businessmen, reeling from the COVID 19 economic shutdown of 2020, and which the Edge in a 2019 report, READ :placing Syed Mokthar's indebtedness at RM19.94 billion , from out of the blue make such a huge donation to BERSATU.
CLEARLY the events surrounding the Bernas dividend, and how BERNAS was given 10 year rice import monopoly concession when Parliament could not sit due to Emergency Rule, are at best merely conincidentally hazy, but at worst, a scandal that may top RM5 billion IN THE MAKING.
