KOTA KINABALU: A former member of the Sabah administration has alleged that the state government is ultimately to blame for the halt in negotiations for the state’s takeover of Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) from Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB).
Kenny Chua, the former assistant finance minister, said the government’s indecision caused the negotiations to stretch for too long.
He was commenting on Chief Minister Shafie Apdal’s claim that the return of the utility company to Sabah was disrupted after Perikatan Nasional (PN) took over power at the federal level early this year.
Shafie said on Wednesday that negotiations began during Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s tenure as prime minister and that everything was going well until the change of government.
He said he had been told that Putrajaya had decided to put the takeover plan on hold.
Chua said it was wrong of Shafie to shift the blame to PN.
He claimed that the takeover could have already happened if the state government had handled the negotiations well and speedily.
He said negotiations were still ongoing at the time Shafie held his last cabinet meeting.
“Certain conditions the government needs to meet have not been ironed out,” he said.
“It is impossible that TNB will not let go of SESB if you can settle the matter or if you meet the requirements. TNB is a private company although government owned. There are terms and conditions to be met.
“So why do you say it was put on hold because of Perikatan Nasional?”
Chua said he was not happy with the Shafie administration because of its “inconsistency” in making decisions.
He was vice-chairman of Sabah PKR when the party sacked him for siding with former chief minister Musa Aman in the latter’s bid to topple the Warisan-led state government.
Chua said he believed the state government should stop pursuing the takeover for the moment because the state’s finances have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Besides the compensation to be settled with TNB, he said, there was also the matter of debts incurred by SESB over the years that the state would have to inherit.
He added that Sabah could not afford to take over the debt-ridden company without the federal government’s support and participation.
In January last year, Yeo Bee Yin, who was energy, science, technology, environment and climate change minister, said the federal cabinet had agreed to start the process of returning ownership of SESB to the Sabah government.
She added that the process would take about two years to complete.
Subsequently, Shafie said a special task force made up of state and federal representatives would be set up to quicken the process.
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