DAP National Publicity Secretary Tony Pua disproved Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani’s claim that 1MDB has never received government funds to help repay its loans, reported Free Malaysia Today.
“The finance ministry had, on so many occasions, came to the rescue of 1MDB over the past two years and it involved billions of ringgit of taxpayers’ monies.”
“Among the most clear-cut examples were the RM800 million loan from Socso and another RM2.4 billion Bandar Malaysia sukuk bond, which the finance ministry has now assumed as a result of taking over TRX City Sdn Bhd and Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd,” he said.
To back his claim, Pua cited the Auditor-General’s report that showed almost all of the 1MDB’s borrowings for TRX City and Bandar Malaysia were never utilised for these two developments.
“Hence, when the finance ministry agreed to take over the property projects and assumed the liabilities, it had effectively ‘settled’ 1MDB’s RM3.2 billion debt problem.”
Another proof that 1MDB was really bailed out by the government can be seen in the recently scrapped sale of Bandar Malaysia, noted Pua, who is also the MP for Petaling Jaya Utara.
“When 1MDB had originally sold a 60 percent stake in Bandar Malaysia to an Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH) Sdn Bhd-led consortium, 1MDB collected the RM741 million deposit which had been paid upon the signing of the sale and purchase agreement in December 2015.”
“However, when the finance ministry terminated the sale due to IWH’s payment defaults, it was the ministry who coughed up the RM741 million to refund the deposit paid by the consortium,” Pua pointed out.
He added that 1MDB should have been the one to refund the deposit, not Malaysian tax-payers.
Image sourced from FMT
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