This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 1, 2025 - September 7, 2025

Last Tuesday (Aug 26), TH Plantations Bhd (KL:THPLANT), the plantation arm of Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH), announced that it had terminated CEO Mohamed Zainurin Mohamed Zain’s contract, following show-cause letters issued in July to him and chief financial officer (CFO) Marliyana Omar over alleged unauthorised payments of RM5.1 million to plantation workers. Marliyana resigned following receipt of the show-cause letter.

The company said Mohamed Zainurin, who was issued the letter of termination on Tuesday, was removed because of misconduct.

Zainurin, 58, had served as TH Plantations CEO since October 2021. He had been put on garden leave since July.

Through his lawyer, Zainurin said he would be appealing his termination while maintaining his innocence against TH Plantations’ claim of misconduct. In a statement on Friday, he claimed that the sum paid out to the workers comprised ex-gratia payments and arrears in salary made “within the authority and were justified”. Furthermore, the sum was RM3.63 million, and not RM5.1 million as alleged.

In 2019, TH Plantations sacked its long-serving CFO Mohamed Azman Shah Ishak after due deliberation upon evaluating his reply to a show-cause letter from the management.

His removal followed a nearly two-month suspension after he was served the show-cause letter, which followed a forensic audit undertaken when a new management came in to turn the company around. However, the findings of the forensic audit were never publicly disclosed.

In 2018, then CEO and executive director Datuk Seri Zainal Azwar Zainal Aminuddin resigned a week after being told to go on garden leave.

While the reasons behind the departures of Azman Shah and Zainal Azwar from TH Plantations remain unclear, the fact that four members of senior management have exited in similar circumstances in the past eight years is disquieting.

These episodes must be concerning for all stakeholders, especially as TH Plantations’ largest shareholder is TH, a pilgrims’ fund.

If governance issues or internal control weaknesses led to the termination of the company’s top management, the key question is whether steps have been taken to prevent a recurrence.

Or is there more to the departures than meets the eye?

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