Selangor State Govt's Talam Debt Recovery

Freedom Come Freedom Go Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Freedom Come Freedom Go

Questions for Khalid Ibrahim: Was that mysterious RM50 million payment in cash...and was it really paid? (Photo by Hussein Shaharuddin/The Mole)

Since the initial grandiose announcements by who else, Malaysiakini "RM392 mil Talam debt settled, says MB" and The Malaysian Insider "Selangor MB silences critics with RM50 million debt recovery", the debt recovery measure taken by the Selangor State Government from Talam Corporation Bhd, I had made some background search but left it alone seeing it nothing more than Pakatan Rakyat's PR exercise in propaganda.

The Malaysian Insider especially gloats:

"Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim proved his naysayers wrong by successfully collecting more than RM50 million in cash and assets from developer Talam Corp Bhd after acquiring its debts from state firms.

“We have so far collected more than RM50 million and we hope to collect the rest within the year,” Khalid told The Malaysian Insider last night.

Malaysiakini said it all:

"The Selangor government has been able to recover all the RM392.02 million in outstanding debt owed by Talam Corporation Sdn Bhd, Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim said today..."

But consider the early demands by Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid, the Edgedaily "Selangor wants Talam to pay up RM391m in 3 months" and the very first paragraph says a lot:

The Selangor government has given TALAM CORPORATION BHDthree months to settle a total of RM391 million in debts owing and due to the state for its failure to deliver on a number of projects, said Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.