Suzi Suliana Sidek would have been an ‘astute businesswoman’ if allegations that she has won 32.4 percent of the solar energy supply quota through 12 companies that she supposedly own are true, said a renewable energy industry player.

“In my opinion, that is how projects are done. One sets up a so-called ‘special purpose vehicle’ for each project so all financial accounting is separate and more transparent.

“To me, this is a normal business approach and practice,” said Emelee Law in a letter to Malaysiakini today defending the daughter of former chief secretary to the government, Mohd Sidek Hassan, who is now Petronas chairperson.

“The fact that she set up separate companies to progress this is a business model and it is her prerogative to do this.”

NONE In the letter, Law identified herself as a former renewable energy consultant in Canada who is now venturing into the renewable energy business in Malaysia, although she said has yet to be awarded any projects and claims to be independent.

She also claimed that another company, Cypark Resources Bhd, had also secured a similarly large share of the energy quota through a number of companies, unlike the 9.2 percent as alleged.

“However, unlike Suliana, the companies that Cypark structured to apply and successfully obtained the solar licenses had different shareholders in each company,” she said.

Bidding done online

DAP national publicity chief Tony Pua had previously claimed that Suzi controlled a disproportionally large share of the solar energy via Feed-in Tariff (FiT) allocation.

This was compared against established energy companies Cypark and Petronas, with the latter allegedly controlling a 7.1 percent share.

In addition, Pua pointed out that most of the companies involved were set up shortly before the deadline to apply for the allocation, which is managed by the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Seda).

Seda has claimed that the bidding for the quotas was above board as it was done online, automated, and that other companies had been as successful in their bids.

Solar energy quota awards look above board