CRITICISM of the Grand Plaza Kensington hotel purchase goes back years, and was first made by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in early 2015 when he attacked Felda’s buying spree.

He had said government agencies should have an external auditor to rein in spending.

“This need is urgent now because with Malaysia’s greater wealth, large sums of money are being expended and managed by both the government and agencies,” he wrote in his blog on Jan 29, 2015.

“We see entities, such as Felda, EPF (Employees Provident Fund) and Tabung Haji spending billions to acquire foreign properties, while others, such as MAHB (Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd) and Petronas, have bought shares in airports and Canadian ventures, also involving huge sums of money.”

A month earlier, Felda’s corporate entity, Felda Investment Corporation (FIC), had announced its acquisition of Grand Plaza Kensington in London to “diversify its investment assets”. The hotel was formerly known as Park City Hotel.

The acquisition was FIC’s first London property, and Felda’s second.

Another criticised purchase was that of the 198-unit Grand Plaza Serviced Apartment in Bayswater, London, bought for £97.9 million (RM538 million) in September 2013.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had demanded an answer from Putrajaya on how FIC would seen returns on its investment.

“In other words, Felda overpaid by nearly RM100 million!” he had said in October that year.

“This has raised fears that any economic downturn would cause state-linked Malaysian firms (that are) buying up London properties at inflated prices to lose tens of millions of pounds in public funds.”

In March 2015, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had questioned an unnamed son of Isa Samad over the Kensington purchase, reported Malaysiakini, citing a source privy to the investigations.

Isa was the then chairman of Felda subsidiary Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd.

DAP’s Seremban member of parliament, Anthony Loke, asked that the Prime Minister’s Department reveal the status of MACC’s investigations into claims that FIC had overpaid for both properties.

Loke also wanted to know whether Isa’s son was being investigated by MACC.

In a parliamentary written reply in May 2015, the minister in charge of transparency and integrity, Paul Low, had said preliminary investigations found that there was no wrongdoing in the FIC deal.

“Early investigations by MACC have found no basis to offences under the 2009 MACC Act (being committed) by parties relating to the issues raised.”

Loke lauded MACC for reopening investigation papers on the London purchases.

“If there is actionable evidence, MACC should investigate the matter fully,” he said today, adding that the commission was reopening a case that it had closed years ago.

“The question is, why only now? But if they’ve found evidence (that warrants) further investigation, they should act on it. Better late than never.”  – July 14, 2017.