Quality Concrete Holdings Berhad (QCHB), the infamous company partly owned by Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s sister, Roziah @ Raziah Mahmud, and Taib’s first cousin, Hamed Sepawi (reported to be worth at least RM600 million), is at the epicentre of another scandal rocking Sarawak.
Hamed Sepawi is listed at 28th among the 30 largest shareholders of QCHB as of 6 May 2010, according to QCHB’s 2010 Annual Report, filed with the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. Another Taib family member among the 30 largest shareholders is Abdul Aziz Bin Husain, former State Secretary and Taib’s brother-in-law of Taib, listed at 24th.
This shabby facade is yet another example of why all Sarawakians must block the Taib family’s road to riches.
The company was given the license to log the Sebuyau Ibans’ Native Customary Rights (NCR) lands without the consent of the land owners. This month saw the dramatic arrest of seven Iban villagers from Sebuyau communities, and also the defiant filing of their land rights claim in the Kuching High Court.
Sarawakians must take the lead in making a clear statement that this road to riches is totally unacceptable, and that the Barisan Nasional (BN) Government must be held accountable come election time (and equally importantly, between elections too).
The company history of QCHB is available in the public domain for us to review. There is not much head-cracking required to show Taib’s road to riches is, plain and simple, corrupt practices through his high office.
Taib must be reminded that our people know of his practices. Taib has been pretending to be unaware of the increasing amount of evidence pointing to him enriching himself at the expense of Sarawakians, and the marginalised native communities in particular.
Quality Concrete Holdings Berhad exposed
The Quality Concrete Holdings Berhad (QCHB) connection exposed by the Sebuyau protests is only one of many involving the Taib family. The corrupt practice in QCHB is similar to others: allocating lands, projects, shares and so on, to family companies at low cost, to enable the family companies to buy the assets for a token price, then sell them off for instant multi-million ringgit windfalls.
Quality Concrete Holdings Berhad acquired Protoreka Perunding Sdn Bhd on Oct 30, 2008. QCHB announced that the acquisition comprised two ordinary shares of RM1.00 each, for a total cash consideration of RM2.00 via the purchase of two ordinary shares from the then shareholder of Protoreka. Following the said ‘investment’, Protoreka became a wholly owned subsidiary of QCHB.
According to the public announcement, QCHB was then “looking to venture into plantation activity as part of the Group’s continuing efforts to diversify its revenue source.” The statement cited the Board of QCHB as saying QCHB had resolved to acquire Protoreka to undertake this purpose of diversification.
Protoreka was incorporated on April 13, 2005. Its authorised share capital at the time was RM100,000, and the issued and paid-up capital was RM2.00. Quality Concrete Holdings Berhad had stated that its cost of investment in Protoreka was RM10.00. The intended principal activities of Protoreka were investment holdings and cultivation of oil palm, but Protoreka had not commenced any such operations following the date of incorporation until its takeover by QCHB.
From zero assets to 1,734 hectares of land
The RM2 company Protoreka had no assets to speak of before it was bought over by QCHB. Then on August 27, 2009, it acquired1 Lot 174 & 175 Menuku Land District & Lot 741-744 of Sebayang Kepayang Land, covering a total of 1,734 hectares, with a net book value of RM1,518,930.
When disposing of Protoreka, the shareholders had nothing more than two pieces of vacant agricultural land, as detailed below2:
| Land Area (Hectares) | Net book value as at 31st Jan 2010 | |
| Lots 174-175, Menuku Land District, Sarawak | 810 | 709,535 |
| Lots 741-744, Sebangan-Kepayang Land District, Sarawak | 924 | 809,395 |
| 1,734 | 1,518,930 |
In the same announcement, it was stated that the land lease will expire on 18th October 2069. According to the announcement that the land was free from all encumbrances, meaning there were no native customary land rights, so the pieces of land were so-called “State Land”.
Calling all NCR land owners from the affected areas, do any of you know if the above tracts of land were actually yours, and had been taken from you?
Instant multi-millionaires
Protoreka was then sold by QCHB to one Leonard Sabu Ak Kheng Boo (680503-13-6113). Leonard Sabu paid RM16.4 million to acquire the company. Details of the sale and purchase can be found here. Quality Concrete Holdings Berhad made its first announcement to the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange regarding the sale of its entire equity in Protoreka on 8th July 2010.
Therefore, in effect, QCHB made almost RM15 million, simply by acquiring the 1,734 hectares of land and then selling the land off. Would QCHB have been able to make such quick profits if Roziah @ Raziah Mahmud were not a major shareholder?
Put another way, is such a method of making millions legal? Could QCHB have made such a multi-million ringgit deal without Taib’s position as the minister responsible for, in this case, distribution of land?
And who is Leonard Sabu Anak Kheng Boo, this multi-millionaire who could make such an enormous purchase? We shall come back to this another time.
To the Chief Minister of Sarawak, why is it that so many instant multi-millionaires are people directly linked to you? Is it mere coincidence that the people growing fabulously rich overnight, whom you said Sarawakians must not hate, happen to be linked to you directly, as family members, proxies or cronies?
Let the Sarawakian voters judge you on this, come the upcoming Sarawak Election!
[1] 2010 QCHB Annual Report
[2] Quality Concrete Holdings Berhad’s official reply to Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad’s query, accessible at http://announcements.bursamalaysia.com/edms%5Cedmswebh.nsf/LsvAllByID/482576120041BDAA48257760001A2012?OpenDocument
It is just too sickening to have knowledge about how Taib has all his entire life been ripping Sarawakians of their land. With what is being revealed from time to time, I wonder how in the world we, Sarawakians, still prefer to retain him as CM. What are we waiting for?
tai mamut had just got back from performing his haj arriving in style using the state govt private jet which is directly financed by the rakyat money. Hence, his “Get Quick Rich” land scheme is nothing new. He has been doing it all the time to a level of confidence that he is untouchable.
Prior to disposing off the land they would harvest the timber first thus making extra ill gotten profit leaving the native land owners with nothing and at the same time cant defend their own rights as the police and other govt agencies would suppress any voices of opposition to the land grab
Now come next state election I urge all our fellow sarawakians to reject BN candidates otherwise this very corrupt CM will continue to milk the state of its resources for his own families n cronies