The Sabah BN component party leader was responding to a statement by Sabah DAP secretary Chan Foong Hin yesterday.
In it, Chan had urged Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Maximus Ongkili to explain why Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) was on the verge of bankruptcy.
“Please ask smart questions, not stupid queries as it would only reveal DAP leaders as a bunch of novices regarding the Sabah electricity sector,” Kinsik said in a statement today.
Kinsik, who is also the political secretary to Ongkili, advised Chan to check with the Registrar of Companies’ audited annual accounts of SESB for the last several years to get a true picture of the company’s financial status.
“It is all there for the public to see, unless Chan does not know how to read financial statements.
“Keep in mind that SESB is majority-owned by a giant public-listed company, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). So, the issue of manipulation of accounts does not arise.”
TNB owns 82.75% of SESB, while the rest of the stake is held by the Sabah state government, Kinsik added.
On matters related to the issue of SESB’s cost of power generation, Kinsik urged the Sri Tanjong assemblyman “to go back to school” so he would be able to understand how it is calculated.
“The Energy Commission uses an internationally-accepted approach called Incentive Based Regulation (IBR) to estimate costs, taking into account the components of costs and their pricing.
“It is not simply plucked from the air. It is a transparent process and cross-checked by qualified independent consultants,” Kinsik said.
He therefore called on DAP leaders to acquire knowledge on the technicalities of the electricity sector so they can “make sensible comments rather than rendering themselves ignorant and behaving like fools”.
“Don’t simply make wild accusations; instead they should make educated contributions and offer solutions,” he said.
“Unless, it is the political culture of DAP to simply criticise without thinking, which is akin to shooting the moon with a water cannon, hoping that tomorrow, it will drop from the sky.”
Kinsik added that in the last five years, the federal government had also pumped in RM4.2 billion to boost SESB’s operations.
Earlier, Chan had said the people would reject any self-proclaimed crisis facing the utility company, supposedly causing the power tariff in Sabah to rise.
Chan had urged Ongkili to instead offer solutions to resolve SESB’s financial crisis.
“However, he chose to disclose SESB’s problems via a statement, which seems much more like a teaser, to seek a revised tariff justification, rather than to resolve the issue comprehensively,” he said in a statement.
Chan also called on Ongkili to shed light on the high cost of energy generation at 56.50 sen/kWh, compared with the current average tariff of 34.52 sen/kWh.
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