FGV puts four management level employees on "leave of absence" pending investigations

KUALA LUMPUR: Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) has put four management level employees, including the CEO and CFO, on administrative leave of absence following findings of alleged discrepancies by its internal audit committee.
The four are FGV CEO Datuk Zakaria Arshad, CFO Ahmad Tifli Mohd Talha, FGV Trading CEO Ahmad Salman Omar and Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd (DOP) senior general manager Kamarzaman Abd Karim.
FGV chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad said the issue first surfaced when its external auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) reported some discrepancies to the board of directors, which prompted an investigation by the internal audit committee.
"We have issued a letter for leave of absence to Zakaria pending investigations. After that we will issue him a show cause letter and give him time to respond before the board makes a decision," he told reporters at a press conference today.
Isa said the alleged discrepancies are related to dealings between DOP, a subsidiary of FGV and Safitex.
He declined to reveal PwC's findings, saying only that it involved "many millions, possibly more" and that further investigation has to be carried out before the findings are revealed.
Isa said there is no time period for Zakaria's leave of absence, which is effective for as long as the investigation takes to be completed. Zakaria was served the letter this morning.