KOTA KINABALU – A Warisan leader today lodged a report at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) here over the controversial Sabah carbon trade deal, the Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA).
Party secretary-general Datuk Loretto Padua Jr said while he could not divulge the details of his report, he spent over two hours having his statement taken by MACC officers.
“Generally, my report is on the NCA, the way the deal has been handled, and the company selected to carry out the NCA,” he said during a press conference at the Sabah Federal Administrative Complex here today.
Also present was Warisan treasurer Terrence Siambun.
Padua said his intention in lodging the report was not political and that he is duty-bound as a Malaysian citizen to do so.
The NCA involves the protection of two million hectares of Sabah forests from logging for 100 years.
The deal involves a 70:30 revenue sharing between the Sabah government and Singapore-based firm, Hoch Standard Pte Ltd, respectively.
Royal commission of inquiry needed over Yayasan Sabah alleged missing funds: Padua
Claims in an Al Jazeera report dated February 2 over the NCA raised a media firestorm in Sabah, leaving Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan – a proponent of the NCA – to brand the report as “distorted”.
Yesterday, Padua had called on the prime minister to set up a royal commission of inquiry over the funds purportedly missing from Yayasan Sabah as reported by the international news outlet.
The report cited that the funds, which had supposedly gone missing between 1986 and 1993, were from the foundation’s coffers.
It added that the period coincides with most of Kitingan’s tenure as director of the Yayasan Sabah.
The inquiry was necessary, as Al Jazeera reported that PricewaterhouseCoopers made the discovery in 1994, said Padua.
The Vibes yesterday reported that the deal with Hoch Standard was a special purpose vehicle established to realise the potential of Sabah’s forests.
According to Hoch Standard global corporate adviser Stan Lassa Golokin, work on carbon credit in Sabah started in 2018. – The Vibes, February 7, 2022
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