Azizul says said the issue has been experienced by Felcra participants in his constituency and possibly in other areas across the state. – Photo by Roystein Emmor
KUCHING (May 15): The land management model practised by the Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Felcra) Berhad should be restructured to address dividend-related issues, ensuring that the company’s profits are better aligned with the financial well-being of Sarawak’s rural communities.
Azizul Annuar Adenan (GPS-Tanjong Datu) said the issue has been experienced by Felcra participants in his constituency and possibly in other areas across the state.
He said, based on the Auditor-General’s Report (LKAN) 2/2025 tabled in July 2025, several critical findings and serious irregularities involving Felcra Berhad had been identified.
“The report paints a rather worrying picture of the company’s governance, particularly in the area of procurement.
“The audit also repeatedly highlighted inefficiencies in plantation management activities, including failures to comply with fertiliser schedules and harvesting cycles; issues involving foreign workers overstaying the validity period of their work permits (PLKS); as well as the inability to achieve targeted reductions in administrative costs,” he said in his debate during the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting.
He said that although Felcra announced what he described as an “encouraging” profit distribution for the financial year ending December 2025, participants in Sarawak continued to express dissatisfaction as the net dividends received were sometimes minimal.
Among the contributing factors, he said, were deductions for development debts, the small and scattered scale of projects which complicates cost management, and issues relating to distribution frequency, with participants claiming they only receive dividends a few times despite the scheme operating for decades.
He also noted that participants had reportedly not been provided with account statements.
Azizul proposed several measures to address the issue, including consolidation of land to ensure Native Customary Rights (NCR) land can be managed more productively without encroachment, improving irrigation systems in problematic padi and plantation areas, introducing interim and monthly distributions to improve cash flow for participants, and strengthening audits between 2025 and 2026 to reduce management leakages.
In March this year, Felcra Berhad announced a fixed dividend rate of 15 per cent for the Felcra Malaysia Berhad Participants’ Cooperative (KPFB), with a total final distribution of RM302.9 million paid to 71,680 participants nationwide.
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