THE fall of the Barisan Nasional government in May has unearthed yet another ugly case of mismanagement at Felda, which has led to a plunge in the incomes of tens of thousands of settlers.

The latest revelation from a settlers’ welfare group will heap more pressure on the new Pakatan Harapan administration’s attempts to put Felda back on track after years of being tainted by scandals under the Najib administration.

Kami Anak Felda (KAF), or the Children of Felda, association alleged that for the past two months, some 15,000 settlers have seen their incomes slashed by 50%.

In the most extreme cases, some settlers have seen their monthly incomes plunge to zero, KAF president Fakhrurrazi Mohd Habib told The Malaysian Insight.

The blame does not lie with the new government, he said, but with Felda’s top management under former prime minister Najib Razak, whose father ironically started Felda.

“One the main problems is Felda Technoplant Sdn Bhd and its poor management of the oil palm holdings of settlers under its care,” Fakhrurrazi said.

FTP is the subsidiary tasked with replanting and later managing the settlers’ 4ha holdings on their behalf. Earnings from fruit harvests are transferred to the settler but the latter then pays FTP a management fee.

Settlers who signed up with FTP are usually those unable to work their own holdings, such as the infirm, the disabled and single mothers.

It is estimated that there are about 31,000 settlers still under FTP and of this number, nearly half have seen their incomes slashed by 50%.

“FTP does a lousy job. It harvests (their holdings) only once a month. It doesn’t manage their fertiliser and pesticide needs effectively so trees don’t bear a lot of fruit.”

In comparison, settlers who manage their own holdings are able to harvest twice per month, which is the usual cycle, and they get more fruit from their trees, he said.

The double whammy comes when settlers under FTP have their already meagre earnings deducted for loan instalments and FTP’s management fee.

“There is a rule in Felda that settlers who earn less than RM1,000 per month do not get their earnings deducted. But we don’t know why Felda is ignoring this rule.

“So, if a settler earns a gross pay of say RM800 per month from his harvests under FTP, that income can come to only RM400 after deductions.

“If they earn RM500 per month in harvests, that is even worse and this is why we see some settlers recording zero incomes.”  

Mazlan Aliman of another settler’s group, Anak, said such scenarios contradicted Felda’s original aim of tackling rural poverty.  

The reason this did not occur under the Najib administration is because money from external sources was channelled to Felda, said Fakhrurrazi.

“Under the old government, it was called ‘pendahluan hasil’ (advance on harvests) to cover these shortfalls,” he said.  

“But the new government does not do this because it has an honest and transparent picture of Felda’s accounts in order to fix them.”   

PH has announced that it is restructuring Felda to return it to its original aims of providing for settlers’ welfare.

Part of that effort involves revealing the agency’s true financial situation, which Economics Affairs Minister Azmin Ali has said is critical.

A white paper on Felda’s problems is expected to be tabled in the October parliamentary session while the new government works to sell its non-strategic assets to pay its RM8.25 billion debt. – August 11, 2018.