KOTA KINABALU: Arguing he had already apologised for unintentionally misleading the state assembly, Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan dismissed further calls for him to publicly do so.
The Sabah Deputy Chief Minister said he issued a written apology to state assembly Speaker Datuk Kadzim Yahya, who read the statement in the assembly on Monday.
“That (written statement) is the public apology,” said the Tambunan assemblyman to reporters at an event here yesterday.
In December last year, Kitingan told the assembly the paid-up capital for Hoch Standard Pte Ltd – a Singapore-based company to oversee the controversial Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA) deal – was USD$10mil (RM44.51mil).
He later amended his statement in a letter of apology to the Speaker in April, explaining he had misunderstood the information and gave an inaccurate statement at the time.
Tungku assemblyman Assaffal Alian and Parti Warisan supreme council member Azhar Matussin later urged Jeffrey to publicly apologise.
During yesterday’s press conference, Kitingan said the matter stemmed from someone making the wrong assumption that funds in the company’s bank account were paid-up capital.
“So I’ll just leave (it) at that,” he said.
Kitingan also said Hoch Standard was a special-purpose vehicle and not a conventional company that needed a lot of paid-up capital.