FELDA HOLDINGS BERHAD - The milking by Bakke Salleh

When Yusof Noor became the Chairman of FELDA, the government agency, he introduced a lot of changes.  A lot of these were in FELDA Group of Companies.  He condone interference of politician with personal agenda of draining these cash rich organisations.

Bakke Salleh was made the Group Managing Director of FELDA Holdings Berhad (FHB) not long after Yusof Noor became Chairman.  It is not proven whether he was brought in by Yusof Noor or he was parachuted in by Najib/Rosmah.  There were many insinuations pointing to many directions.

According to some, prior to joining FHB Bakke Salleh was in Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (BIMB).  It has been reported that his stint in BIMB was not spectacular.  In fact, some even termed it as a failure...

When Bakke joined FHB, he brought in his honchos, giving them generous salaries.  Some say these ranges from RM30,000 to RM50,000 before benefits.  These salaries were easily two to three times the salary earned by the previous Group MD.  In all likelihood, Bakke's salary should be in the range of RM50,000 if his honchos were paid RM30,000...

The latest talk around town is that Bakke is rewarding himself and his honchos with 10 months' bonuses!  Of course, not directly.  It was done "above board" though the Remuneration Committee...

[Bakke appointed Ethos Consulting (directly or indirectly) to draft strategies for FELDA Group of Companies at a cost of RM1.2 million without any visible and quantifiable results.  It was whispered that the strategies were "shot" down (rejected) by the shareholders.  I am not surprise at all after browsing the RM1.2 million "strategic" folder...]

From a strictly commercial perspective, it is fine to award such high bonuses if performance has been rather spectacular...  However there is no noticeable and spectacular performance from FELDA Group of Companies... Have you noticed  anything spectacular...???

The majority shareholder of FHB, the Koperasi Permodalan Felda Berhad (KPF), should exert their rights to right the wrongs being done in FHB now...  

Being a shareholder, KPF has fiduciary duty to remove those rotten apples (including Bakke) from FHB.  If KPF fails to do that then KPF has failed their members...

[Now Bakke has one foot in Amanah Raya Berhad (ARB) and has been appointed as Chairman of its Investment Committee.  The good works of Ahmad Rodzi Pawanteh would be wasted...  I am sorry Rodzi, you efforts would come to a nought and you don't even have a say in it...]