‘Sa-Balik Baju’ producer objects to conflict of interest allegations over RM200,000 grant highlighted in A-G report
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — Production house Red Communications has objected to allegations of conflict of interest surrounding the funding of its Sa-Balilk Baju film in the Auditor-General’s Report 2021 Series 2.
The report published on 16 February 2023 stated that the Digital Content Grant (DKD) that was awarded to Red Communications did not fulfil all necessary conditions.
“Red Communications takes exception to the allegations in the Auditor-General’s Report 2021 Series 2, published on 16 February 2023,” said Red Communications founder Lina Tan in a press statement today.
“The report states that the Digital Content Grant (DKD) that was awarded to Red Communications did not fulfil all the necessary conditions.”
Responding to the report on alleged conflicts of interest, she said that the DKD OTT grant under Finas was opened for applications in May 2020 and Red Communications had submitted two proposals and pitched for it in June 2020.
“Only one of the proposals was approved to be a DKD recipient, the proposal for the film.
“I, Lina Tan, was appointed to the board of Finas in June 2020, at which time, I declared in writing to Finas of the potential conflict of interest, which was acknowledged and minuted on 8 July 2020. This is compliance with the applicable legal requirements.
“The Ministry of Communications and Multimedia also acknowledged receipt of my voluntary declaration of the potential conflict, when the then Finas CEO Ahmad Idham brought the matter to Yang Berhormat Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah who was the Minister.
“The Ministry found there was no conflict as the Board of Directors is not involved in the award of grants or contracts.”
Tan said that since the Finas had no oversight of the daily affairs of Finas, the matter was considered immaterial.
“As per the Auditor General’s report, the objective of the OTT Platform Grant is to assist and encourage industry practitioners to produce and distribute high quality creative content that can be marketed locally and internationally.
“For this reason, the finished product was shown to both Astro and Netflix. Red Communications chose the offer from Netflix after considering the objectives and the financial returns of the project,” she added.
“The company representative had sent letters on this matter to the officer in charge in Finas. This was acknowledged by Finas and the final milestone was approved.
“Approval by LPF is a non-issue as LPF does not have any jurisdiction over any content shown on OTT platforms.
“During my two-year tenure as a member of the Board of Directors of Finas, Red Communications never pitched for any other grants from Finas,” Tan insisted.
“Red Communications is a reputable company with a 23-year track record that speaks for itself. Red Communications has worked with local broadcaster Astro, as well as international broadcasters like National Geographic, Disney and The History Channel.
“We take exception to the allegations in the Auditor-General’s report and have already submitted a letter of explanation to the current Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Yang Berhormat Tuan Ahmad Fahmi bin Mohamed Fadzil, together with all supporting documents and minutes of meetings that took place in Finas.”
She said the letter her statement was also send to to the current Finas CEO Professor Dr Md Nasir Ibrahim, and that she would make herself available to explain things to the Auditor-General to further clarify.
