THE Najib administration today moved to resolve the standoff at crisis-ridden Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) by appointing Idris Jala to establish what went wrong and who has to carry the can.

Idris is expected to play the role of honest broker to sort out the mess at the plantation company following the suspension of its chief executive officer, chief financial officer and two other senior members of the management team.

The appointment of Idris, who was a former minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and Pemandu Associated Sdn Bhd CEO, was announced in a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office this evening.

“The government has appointed Idris Jala as an independent party to establish the facts of the case and recommend the way forward regarding the decision by FGV’s Board to suspend its chief executive officer, chief financial officer and two other senior members of the management team after consultation with all the relevant parties,” the Prime Minister’s Office announced in a two-paragraph statement this evening.

“The relevant parties have agreed to the appointment of Idris Jala. Those consulted were Felda chairman Shahrir Samad, FGV chairman Mohd Isa Abdul Samad, FGV CEO Zakaria Arshad and CFO Ahmad Tifli Mohd Talha.”

Putrajaya’s intervention was expected given the grave consequences the washing of dirty linen could have on the Najib administration.

The listing of the Felda entity was unpopular and its short existence has been marked by change of top personnel and a host of allegations of mismanagement.

In addition, there could be a blowback on Umno, given that a player in the scandal is Isa, a ruling party warlord.

Prior to Pemandu, Idris was the CEO for Malaysian Airline System Bhd from 2005-2009 and before that as managing director for Shell MDS.

FGV went into crisis mode yesterday when it announced to Bursa Malaysia that its board of directors had ordered Zakaria and Tifli to go on leave indefinitely.

During a hastily called press conference, Isa said the duo were told to take leave to enable a proper internal audit into certain transactions.

Isa said that a PricewaterhouseCooper probe into a transaction involving FGV unit Delima Oil Products and Afghan company Safitex had revealed several offences linked to corruption.

Zakaria, in turn, had denied any wrongdoing and welcomed the MACC to investigate the Delima Oil-Safitex dealings.

The embattled CEO told an English daily that there had been several occasions where he did not agree with Isa.

He said that his decisions against investing into Felda Cambridge Nanosystems Ltd were overruled twice by the FGV board.

Around 3pm today, Zakaria entered the MACC headquarters armed with a stack of files.

He told reporters there that he wanted to hand the documents to MACC and explain certain irregular transactions in FGV. – June 7, 2017.