Prasarana denies CEO tenure cut short

KUALA LUMPUR (July 26): Prasarana Malaysia Bhd has denied that the tenure of its president and group chief executive officer Masnizam Hisham (pictured) has been cut short or that she has tendered her resignation.

In a statement today, the Ministry of Finance-owned company said its board of directors has full confidence in Masnizam, and her leadership in running Prasarana and the various initiatives she has undertaken since taking office on Jan 18, 2018.

"The board also expressed regret with reports by the media which the board felt was mischievous and uncalled for, especially (as the) authoritative source was not disclosed and when various transformation measures were being undertaken in the interest of the group especially on the much-highlighted LRT Line 3 (LRT3) project," the statement read.

The Edge Financial Daily (FD) reported today that it was understood that Masnizam's tenure was being cut short and that she was likely to be the next government-linked company chief to have to quit her position following a change in the federal government, particularly as it was during her tenure that Prasarana sought an additional RM22 billion from the treasury to fund the construction of LRT3.

On July 10, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng revealed that LRT3's projected total cost had spiralled to a whopping RM31.45 billion from an original estimate of RM9 billion when the project was launched in 2015, and attributed the cost blow-out to Prasarana's poor management.

He also revealed the additional RM22 billion sought on March 30 was in the form of government guarantees, and that this was on top of the initial RM10 billion Putrajaya had granted in 2015 to finance the project.

When approached at the Parliament lobby yesterday, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah told FD he is unaware of any leadership change.

In its official statement today, Prasarana said last Friday its senior management had submitted to the board a detailed historical report on the LRT3 project which was then sent to Lim to provide a full perspective of the project.

"In the letter to the Minister, Prasarana had also reaffirmed that the organisation would stand guided by the government's decision on the way forward for the project, in the interest of the rakyat and in uplifting further the standard of public transport systems and services in Greater Klang Valley," it said.

Prasarana also said that after Masnizam took over her current position, the board of directors had directed her to the group's chief integrity officer — a seconded officer from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission — to investigate any anomaly in the procurement process for the project.

Prasarana also said Masnizam is passionate about her work, and that she had immediately commenced a host of innovative measures in line with her cost-cutting and revenue-generating programmes under a fresh initiative named 'Inventing Prasarana 2.0'.

"Since she first joined Prasarana as the head of legal department in 2004 and later promoted on merit as head of group procurement, head of group communications and strategic marketing, director of infrastructure services, and CEO of Prasarana Integrated Management & Engineering Services (PRIME), Masnizam has displayed excellence in service with undisputed integrity, professionalism and passion in her works, which have drawn admiration from the board." — theedgemarkets.com

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