Man of conspicuous wealth – so where did the Deputy CM get all his money?
Over the past week we have exposed how public contracts amounting to RM100million were gifted to each of two companies, Dema Tega, owned by Federal Minister Jacob Sagan and Embun Pelangi, owned by Naroden Majais, one of Taib’s key assemblymen.
However, the largesse corruptly handed out to to a company owned by the immediate family of Deputy Chief Minister, Alfred Jabu and their politically connected colleagues has dwarfed such sums.
KACC Construction Sdn Bhd has received contracts worth almostHALF A BILLION RINGGIT from the public purse over the past decade!
Another fortunate YB and Jabu relative all rolled into one. Robert Lawson Chuat is a shareholder in KACC Construction
The company is a joint concern between the families of the DCM, Alfred Jabu; the State Secretary, Mohd Morshidi Abdul Ghani and Fadillah Yusof, who is the BN MP for Petra Jaya and Deputy Minister for Science.
The key shareholders are Jabu’s daughter Jennifer and his cousin Robert Lawson Chuat (a known proxy who just also happens to be yet another of Taib’s loyal PBB State Assemblymen), as well as the State Secretary’s brother, Mohd Taufik Abdul Ghani and also a niece and nephew of a fellow Taib crony, Federal MP Fadillah Yusof.
Their father, who is Fadillah’s brother Bustari Yusof, has himself received massive timber concessions and has been described as one of Taib Mahmud’s key nominees.
All the right political connections to qualify for some really fat construction contracts!
So what contracts have these deserving sons, daughters, brothers and cousins of Taib’s key political allies received? The evidence is there for all to see in the official Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) website, which lists the companies which receive publicly funded contracts:
Building projects adding up to nearly HALF A BILLION RINGGIT – nothing tendered and nothing declared.
The total value of these ten lucrative contracts alone was nearly half a billion ringgit! Is it any wonder then that Mr Jabu’s houses are so luxurious?
Benefactor – Taib looks down on the lavish interior furnishings of Jabu’s ‘traditional style’ country mansion
And is it any wonder either that the wedding of the fortunate Jennifer Jabu was so lavish?
Lavish traditional wedding that Jennifer could clearly well afford.
The question remains however, as to how qualified was Ms Jabu to receive such a major construction project?
Did her tender, ‘negotiated’ along with this group of other political proxies, represent the best value for money for Sarawak?
Likewise, do we think Jabu’s cousin Lawson Chuat rolled up his sleeves and got on with supervising the building of these projects, as his role as Director of KACC Sdn Bhd would suggest, or do we suspect that he and his other politically connected friends immediately sub-contracted the construction for a much lower price to a more qualified company?
And how much of the money that was supposedly granted to these near relatives of Jabu, Abdul Ghani and Federal Minister Fadillah Yusof actually go to their Daddies, the politicians themselves?
After all, Jabu did not build his other fancy mansion in the middle of Kuching on his official state salary either.
New wing of the Jabu Kuching mansion
Plenty more sources of wealth
However, readers of Sarawak Report and other independent sources will be aware that the resources of Taib’s most loyal side-kick, DCM Alfred Jabu, are not limited to mere contracts out of such enterprises as KACC Construction Sdn Bhd.
Traditional wing of Jabu’s Kuching residence
After all, the Deputy Chief Minister has played a crucial role in persuading fellow Ibans that Abdul Taib Mahmud is working honestly and in their best interests. Such a service in so deeply misleading one’s own people can hardly be expected to come cheap!
Other lucrative state concessions that have gone to the Jabus include the oil palm plantation rights handed to the companyHerba Aromatics, of whom the shareholders are Jabu’s son, Rentap, his other daughter, Barbara and again his cousin Lawson.
Another hard-headed business woman? Jabu’s other daughter Barbara is also married off in style after cashing in on the plantation concessions for Herba Aromatics Sdn Bhd
The land handed to Jabu’s Heba Aromatics Sdn Bhd was all Native Customary Land belonging to his own people in Betong. Their compensation for the vast concession, which was worth millions of ringgit, was just RM500 per family.
Then, of course, there is the whole matter of SALCRA, the state plantation scheme of which Jabu is Chairman. The conversation of tens of thousands of hectares of Native Customary Lands into oil palm plantation was promoted as a way of providing the poorest landowners with Sarawak with a living from the profits.
Why is it so little surprise, therefore, that those natives have still received virtually no money from the scheme, which has unaccountably recorded only pitiful profits over the past decades?
And why is it so noticeable that, by contrast, Jabu’s wealth has ostentatiously multiplied over the same period?
Further handouts for the Abdul Ghanis
Lucky brother – Mohd Taufik Abdul Ghani has made millions from state gifted plantations and contracts
Likewise, the half billion ringgit handout to KACC Construction is by no means the only resource that has been allotted to the fellow Taib crony, State Secretary Abdul Ghani.
Sarawak Report has already shown how his same brother Mohd Taufik Adbul Ghani was handed vast hectares of palm plantations also under the companies Derawan Sdn Bhd and Sahua Enterprise Sdn Bhd.
We have demonstrated how 14,000 hectares of land in Similajau went to these companies for a minuscule sum of just RM110,000! Moreover, the lucky brother of the State Secretary was told that he could wait till the end of the full 60 year term of the concession before he had to find that money!
Of course, he has long since already cashed in the whole lot, selling the concession for a very healthy RM15.5million to Austral Enterprises.
No wonder the State Secretary was prepared to go public only last year to announce on Taib’s behalf that he could confirm that over 70% of Sarawak’s virgin jungle remains intact and untouched! But, such willingness to lie comes clearly at a price.
Bustari Yusof and Federal MP Fadillah Yusof
Federal MP for Petra Jaya and Deputy Minister for Science and Technology – brother of key timber concession holder Bustari Yusof
It will come as no surprise that KACC Construction is not the only publicly funded concession that has come the way of the Yusof family either.
Federal MP for Petra Jaya Fadillah Yusof is one of Najibs own Ministers. Meanwhile, his brother, Bustari Yusof, has now achieved the reputation as a substantial, if shadowy,businessman from Sarawak.
Bustari has also long been reputed to be one of Taib’s close nominees and is certainly the beneficiary of key timber concessions.
Once again the half billion handout of state contracts to KACC Construction demonstrates exactly how the State of Sarawak has been run by Taib Mahmud.
Time and again the same families get handed vast concessions and lucrative public contracts, in return for also occupying the key political positions in the state and providing Taib Mahmud with their absolute loyalty as he works to further enrich himself and his family at the expense of the people.