Farhash's company never applied for prospecting licence: Sabah land agency

Summary

• Sabah land authorities say they did not receive any mineral prospecting licence from a company linked to former PM’s aide Farhash.

• Agency director further declines to reveal if another implicated company was granted licence.

The Sabah land authority today said it has never received any application for a mineral prospecting licence from Bumi Suria Sdn Bhd, a company linked to the prime minister’s former aide, Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak.

This followed a news portal’s report claiming Sabah Chief Minister Hajiji Noor had granted the company such a licence last year.

State Lands and Surveys Department director Bernard Liew claimed no mineral exploration licence can be considered without an application made to his office first.

“We have never received any PL application from the said company.

“If there is no application, how can it be processed and sent to the chief minister for consideration?

“Under the Sabah Mining Ordinance, an application for PL must be submitted to the department director,” he told Malaysiakini in a text message.

However, Liew declined to reveal if Bayan Assets Sdn Bhd - a coal mining company that allegedly partnered with Bumi Suria - had been granted any mineral exploration licence in Sabah.

According to the official, any application made to the department, such as for a prospecting licence and land purchase, is considered privileged information and confidential.

“The information about Bumi Suria was only provided because there was a leak and we want to present the correct picture of the situation," Liew told Malaysiakini.

Alleged backing

Earlier today, news portal MalaysiaNow published a report detailing a purported meeting held by state-owned Sabah Mineral Management Sdn Bhd (SMM) board of directors last year.

Hajiji, who is the board chairperson, had allegedly given his support for Bumi Suria to get a mining exploration licence on 70,000ha of land area in the Kalabakan and Gunung Rara forest reserves near the Kalimantan border.

To back its claims, the portal attached a YouTube link to an audio clip, which shows Hajiji purportedly mentioning that the meeting was attended by representatives of the coal mining company Bayan.

SMM’s current chief executive officer Natasha Sim has confirmed to Malaysiakini that she attended the meeting as an “invited guest” but said she “will verify” when queried about the audio recording.

Sim later asked Malaysiakini to check about the recording with the SMM company secretary, before indicating that it would issue an official statement.

“By the way, a lot of the facts in this video are very wrong. It’s not even my voice in the video, but my face and name were inserted in the voice recording,” she claimed.

Malaysiakini has reached out to Hajiji’s office and Farhash for comments.

Sabah mineral prospecting licences are the subject of a massive corruption scandal, after multiple assemblypersons, including state ministers, were caught on video discussing alleged bribes with businessperson Albert Tei - who later blew the whistle on the alleged deals.

Two Sabah politicians, state assistant minister Andi Suryady Bandy and Qhazanah Sabah chairperson Yusof Yacob, have been charged with taking RM350,000 in bribes from Tei.

Tei has also been charged with giving bribes.

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