Investigations into the losses made by Sime Darby Bhd's energy and utilities division - which have been kept confidential - will not jeopardise government efforts to combat corruption, a major agenda under the National Key Results Area (NKRA).

NONE Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said a thorough investigation method has been taken to resolve the issue, involving the close co-operation of the authorities and the company.

"Sime Darby has appointed a senior legal advisor for the legal actions to be taken against those found to have failed in their duties and obligations.

"If a study could be made of how the problem of losses in the energy and utility division could be overcome, the objectives of NKRA can be achieved," he said in his written reply to a question from Wee Choo Keong (Bebas-Wangsa Maju) at the Dewan Rakyat sitting in Kuala Lumpur today.

Wee wanted an explanation on how the objectives of NKRA could be achieved if the forensic report on the RM2.09 billion losses made by Sime Darby is kept a secret while the second finance minister had given assurance in June this year that the forensic report of independent consultants KPMG and Deloitte would be presented to the Dewan Rakyat when it is completed.

Under the NKRA launched by the prime minister, the government had fixed the agenda to combat corruption as among the core thrusts.

Foul play suspected

Sime Darby on September 20 had made an announcement of the audit findings on the losses made by several projects under its energy and utilties division.

It said the audit and legal consultants had found a prima facie case to suspect foul play and a failure to carry out duties and obligations.

Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said that following this, the Sime Darby board of directors made a decision to take legal action including lodging a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. It also briefed the Securities Commission on the forensic audit findings.

He said Sime Darby also made a follow-up announcement on Sept 22 as requested by the stock exchange.

"To protect the interest of Sime Darby, the legal counsel had also advised Sime Darby to keep confidential the detailed information of the forensic audit report and the form of legal action to be taken by Sime Darby where it would make the related announcement once the legal action is completed," he said.

  Export of Proton cars

Meanwhile, the PM in his written reply to Hee Loy Sian (PKR-Petaling Jaya South), who wanted to know the number of Proton cars exported according to their brands, said that a total of 40,926 Proton cars had been exported from 2008 to May this year with three models registering the highest market, namely Gen-2, Persona and Savvy.

Exports of Gen-2 amounted to 11,714 units, while Persona and Savvy's exports came to 9,595 units and 5,240 units respectively.

All the three Proton models also registered the highest export amount in 2008 with Gen-2 accounting for 7,817 units, Persona 5,419 and Savy 2,195 units.

There was however a drop the following year with Gen-2 exports coming to 2,813 units, while Persona and Savvy respectively recorded exports of 2,738 and 2,091 units.

At the same time, the other models marketed were Saga, Satria Neo, Wira, Waja and Arena and as for the Perdana model, only one unit was exported, he said.

Almost ready

To another question from Hee, Najib said the construction of Bank Negara Malaysia's new financial resources centre, also known as Sasana Kijang was 95 percent ready and its full completion was expected in March next year.

The cost of the building which was originally scheduled to be ready in August 2007 with an original cost of RM420.1 million has now gone up by 10.8 per cent based on current prices.

"Following problems with the construction of the building, BNM had ended the services of the original contractor and appointed a new contractor to complete the building under the concept of managing contractor," Najib said.

He said the new building will provide Bank Negara office space, knowledge management centre, training centre and a financial museum.

"Part of the building would be also used as the headquarters for international financial institutions namely the Islamic Financial Service Board and the South East Asian Central Bank Research and Training Centre," he said.

- Bernama