Be transparent dare to SESB

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KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Shareda) has dared Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) to stop hiding behind its Sdn Bhd status.

Its president, Datuk Francis Goh yesterday said SESB should adopt the Berhad status so that any information concerning it, including their financial accounts, will be transparent and readily available to the public.

“Why hide behind the Sdn Bhd and say that you are running at a loss? They want the government to allow them to hike up the tariff,” said Francis at a press conference here in response to SESB’s statement yesterday.

“SESB has disclosed that in the financial year 2014, the SESB’s return on assets (RoA) stood at 1.32%. RoA is a scale to measure efficiency. It shows that SESB is an inefficient and incompetent company,” said Francis.

He disagreed with SESB’s statement that the consumer contribution for connection of supply received by SESB for the financial year 2014 amounted to only RM72 million.

He said that the RM180 million amount claimed by Shareda was not over claimed since the capital contribution to SESB for development projects by only 34 out of its more than 180 members between 2012 and 2014 amounted to RM121,311,164.

“But it is difficult to argue with SESB on the figure unless SESB turns into a Berhad,” he said.

He added that Shareda was maintaining its stance and claims.

“Why does SESB continue to charge us higher rate as compared to West Malaysia? Why is there two to three rates for Sabah even with the 1Malaysia concept?”

He said that Shareda does not want to resort to negotiating with SESB and added that they are writing to the Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Maximus Ongkili.

“We hope to see him next month for a meeting. We urge him not to be fooled by TNB (Tenaga Nasional Berhad) and SESB and as chairman the ball is in his hand to help Sabahans,” he said.

He further added that Shareda doesn’t want to play SESB’s game of calculations.

“We don’t want their non-transparent calculations,” he said.

He also said that they do not mind bringing SESB to court if Shareda has exhausted all their avenues.

Francis went on to describe the dilemmas that have been caused by SESB to Shareda members.

“SESB give us the bills and we pay immediately but SESB is always late in delivering. Developers have to suffer due to their inconsistencies and non-transparency,” he said.

The delay by SESB has often resulted in the delays of developers getting the occupational certificate.

“Because of this, developers seldom deliver their units on time, we are ask to pay this and that but there is no penalty imposed on SESB. They charge you as they wish and it is difficult for developers to come up with an estimate (to the price of properties). This is one of the factors that has caused house prices (in Sabah) to go up,” he said.

He said that if SESB charged a standard rate, the housing rate in Sabah will go down because there will be no more uncertainty in the costs involved.

“If adopted, everyone will be happy,” he said.

He re-iterated his earlier offer to buy SESB but not for RM2 billion as was earlier offered.

“After analysing, SESB is not worth RM2 million. But if TNB refuses to inject money into SESB then return SESB to the State Government. We will come in to look for RM2 billion to inject fresh capital to SESB to upgrade its service and delivery structure. Developers want to inject into SESB. We don’t see any reason why it cannot make money,” he said.

He added that once this happened, Sabahans will be able to see a 15 per cent reduction in electricity tariff

In the end, Francis urged SESB not to argue with Shareda.

“Show us your competency. Give us the fixed rate.”

During the press conference, Francis also showed members of the media a copy of the alleged SESB financial information from the Companies Commission of Malaysia for the financial year ending of 31 August 2013.

In the summary of the financial information, the SESB non-current assets was RM4,313,666,000 and their current assets was RM1,311,387,000 while their non-current liabilities was RM4,377,884,000 and current liabilities was RM1,430,529,000.

Also provided in the financial information was SESB’s revenue for that period which was RM1,427,693,000 and that its profit before and after tax was RM13,861,000.