Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has dismissed charges that a Dhaka-based freight
company and two of its airline officers are involved in weight-cheating
over cargo transport.
Contacted yesterday, MAS corporate services senior general manager Dr
Mohamadon Abdullah denied the allegations in the police report lodged by
a MAS employee o?n Monday, saying they were "not true and malicious".
The senior GM said he had personally conducted the investigation after
the issue was reported in the media o?n Tuesday.
Hidden agenda
"Based o?n the privileged information that I have, (the accusation) has
nothing to do with weight-cheating, it is not true, it is malicious. It
is not a commercial issue here but more a political issue that is being
played up by certain quarters," he claimed.
Asked about o?n the alleged political agenda, he said, "I can’t tell
you...you have to investigate."
"(The complainant) has his personal interest and hidden agenda. He was
trying to bring down MAS and Silkways (Cargo Services Ltd)," Mohamadon
claimed, adding that he did not know who the employee is.
In the police report, the MAS employee alleged that the freight company,
Silkways, was committing fraud by under-declaring the weight of cargo
transported by the airline.
Silkways, co-owned by Shah Alam MP and Parliament Backbenchers Club
chairperson Mohd Zin Mohamed, is a freight agent of MAS.
The complainant claimed that the weight-cheating had been occurring
since the company was set up in September 2000, and that two MAS
officers - area manager in Dhaka, Anwar Matpiah, and general sales agent
department supervisor Shiva Nayaky - were abetting the alleged practice.
The complainant also alleged that between July 14 and Sept 29, 2001,
Silkways had offered inducements worth RM1.1 million to a few MAS
officers to enable the company to slip through the under-declaration in
weight reporting.
However, according to Mohamadon yesterday, the duo implicated in the
charges have denied the accusations and backed their claims with
"proof".
"I have contacted Anwar who is based in Dhaka. He denied any wrongdoing.
He also proved he is innocent. As for Shiva, she is an honest girl who
has been working with me since 1972," he said.
However, Mohamadon refused to reveal the documents containing the
"proof".
Asked whether he has checked with Silkways o?n this matter, Mohamadon
said there was no need as he had all information here.
Checks and balances
The senior staff also said the possibility of the alleged
weight-cheating costing MAS millions of ringgit of losses "does not
arise".
He said MAS exercises due caution in checking weights as it is important
for the balance of the plane.
"If it are marginal differences, we will not bother it. But if it there
are big differences, definitely we will notice and bill the origin
station. Weighing is done at the origin station, in KLIA (Kuala Lumpur
International Airport) and at the final destination, so in this process,
there is a lot of checks and balances," Mohamadon said.
Queried about the information storage documents that showed the
discrepancies - copies of which were made available to reporters o?n
Tuesday - he said they could be due to the "different types of weighing
machines".
He likened the differences to shoe sizes numbers in Malaysia and United
States.
However, when contacted, an officer in MASkargo operations department
said although the weighing machines may be different, the airline uses a
standardised matrix system with their agents in other countries.
MASkargo is a subsidiary company established to handle worldwide
delivery of cargo through MAS’ network of routes.
The officer said the process of re-weighing at the KLIA will usually
match the earlier figure recorded.
Meanwhile, MAS’ Mohamadon said the airline has no plans to lodge a
counter police report against the employee.
"We don’t know who is this person who lodged the report... Let the
police or other authorities come and investigate and prove (the
complaint) is true. Otherwise, I will sue the complainant for RM10
million," he said.
He said MAS also did not intend to call a press conference or issue a
statement o?n the matter as the charges are "not true".
Rough estimates
The issue came to light at the press conference called by Seputeh MP
Teresa Kok of DAP after the report was lodged at the Petaling Jaya
district police headquarters.
Two others who claimed to have knowledge of the matter provided details,
saying they "don’t want to see MAS continue to suffer losses".
The complainant himself was not present in order to protect his
identity.
Based o?n rough estimates, they claimed that MAS may have been sustained
losses amounting to RM3.4 million over the past two years due to the
alleged practice.
MAS had suffered successive losses since the 1997 regional financial
crisis. However, a report in late February this year said the airline
posted a net profit of RM330.40 million in the last quarter of 2002.
This was against a loss of RM310.2 million in the same period in 2001.