Lesson to be learnt

It is not easy being an accountant. The responsibilities is huge as you are the guardian of the company. Some say accountant are support staff and are pain in the b$$$ but who gets fires when things go wrong?

-------------------- from NST today

Sime fires 2 top execs
SIME Darby Bhd yesterday said it terminated the services of two of its senior personnel with immediate effect following RM120 million futures trading losses incurred by the-then Golden Hope Plantations Bhd.

Golden Hope has since been merged together with Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd and Sime Darby.

Sime Darby said chief financial officer Razidan Ghazalli and Muhammad Mohan Kittu Abdullah, the group's vice-president (1) of downstream and biofuel, were dismissed yesterday.

In a statement released late yesterday, the diversified group said its board of directors made the decision after an in-depth inquiry into RM120 million trading losses at Golden Jomalina Food Industries, a subsidiary of Golden Hope.

The losses were discovered in August 2007, several months before the tripartite merger.

Shortly after the losses were discovered, KPMG Forensic was engaged to investigate futures trading operations at Golden Jomalina.

The forensic accountants completed their report and handed it to Sime Darby this year. The issue was deliberated by the Sime Darby board at their meeting on May 28.

The board and a panel of independent directors concluded that the persons concerned had failed to discharge their functions to the standard of care that were reasonably expected of them.

Razidan was Golden Hope's director of finance while Muhammad Mohan was Jomalina's general manager when the losses were incurred through futures trading between October 2006 and August 2007.

A spokesman for Sime Darby said that appropriate provisions have already been made and the group will not have its future profitability affected by the past losses.

He added measures have also been taken to strengthen processes and trading parameters.

"The decision to terminate the services of the two staff members was taken by the board of directors after an extensive process of investigation and deliberation.

While it is never a pleasant task to dismiss any personnel, the board felt that the move was necessary in the interest of accountability and to protect stakeholders of Sime Darby," the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, other sources said Sime Darby's plantations integration adviser, Datuk Sabri Ahmad, also opted to resign from the group.

Sabri was formerly group chief executive of Golden Hope. He did not reply to calls from Business Times but said in a short messaging text that he was "not in town".

Two other officials also resigned, the sources said, although Sime Darby made no mention of them in its statement.