Posted on by Kit

Musa Hitam should make public the full report of Sime Darby task force on the cost overruns of its energies and utilities division tomorrow

Sime Darby Chairman Tun Musa Hitam should make public the full report of the Sime Darby Task Force on the cost overruns of its energies and utilities division tomorrow and should not withhold any information from the Malaysian public, as they are the ultimate shareholders of the GLC conglomerate.

Sime Darby had earlier promised on its website that “all relevant disclosures” will be made with the world’s biggest-listed palm oil producer’s third quarter results tomorrow (May 27) but what Malaysians want is not a second-hand account but the full uncensored report of the Task Force on its energies and utilities division’s “difficulties and challenges, especially with regards to operational efficiency and project management”.

Malaysians want to know the bottom-line, in particular (i) whether Sime Darby has a history totalling some RM3.5 billion write-offs; if so, why and what is being done about it; and (ii) whether Sime Darby has incurred more than RM1 billion in cost overruns from carrying out a civil works contract for the Bakun hydroelectric project, with one estimate putting the total cost overruns at RM1.7 billion; and whether it is true that the government has agreed to reimburse around RM700 million to Sime Darby, leaving the group with around RM1 billion to deal with.

Musa should know that for the first time in his public career, his reputation for credibility, accountability, transparency and integrity is on the line, with commentators castigating him and the Sime Darby Board members as having “zero integrity and zero credibility”.

Musa should be able to understand not only shareholder, but public disgust and anger as one of the country’s bluechips have overnight transformed from a “overperform” to “underperform” stock, and the term GLC (Government-Linked Company) is fast gaining a new meaning – “Government-Losing Concern” – thanks to Sime Darby!

The responsibility on public accountability and transparency does not rest solely on Musa’s shoulders but also on that of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

This is why Najib should present a preliminary White Paper on the Sime Darby fiasco when Parliament reconvenes on 7th June, explaining in particular what it meant to the ten-year GLC Transformation Plan since 2004.

Instead of growing GLCs to drive the country’s economic growth, the GLCs are becoming public burdens as “Government Losing Concerns” retarding the country’s plan to become a high income country to escape the decade-old middle-income trap.

The GLC Transformation Plan sets out a GLC Transformation Manual, KPIs or key performance indicators with 10 initiatives and multi-coloured books like the Red Book on procurement practices and the Purple Book on optimizing capital management practices.

How can Sime Darby be saddled with such astronomical losses if it had followed the Transformation Manual and the ten initiatives which includes efforts like how to improve board effectiveness, laying down procurement guidelines and how to improve operations.

Or hadn’t Sime Darby followed the Transformation Manual and its multi-coloured books.

Either way, both Musa and Najib owe the Malaysian public a full and satisfactory explanation.

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41 Replies to “Musa Hitam should make public the full report of Sime Darby task force on the cost overruns of its energies and utilities division tomorrow”

  1. GLC= Government Losing Concern.
    That’s a good one.
    I reckon the Bakun contract may have been forced on SD by their political masters and so little info on what actually transpired will be revealed.
    Instead of having 3 major groups(the former SD, Golden Hope and Guthrie companies) to evaluate the different management we created a monster company with monstrous results.
    Coming so soon after the Sime Bank debacle, it shows that GLCs are just that – government losing concerns!

  2. Musa Hitam is a smart man.
    He will not take up the Chairmanship…just for the title.
    I think he knows everything and won’t say.
    Since the UMNO B Veteran…Tunku Ritthauddin said…Umno B is corrupted to the core…can we include Musa…a big fish swimming freely too?

  3. Hi Kit,
    look into all the divisions in Sime Darby. Their financial irregularities is not only in energy and Bakun. For example, there is also alot of fiancial irregularities in their healthcare division. Please investigate thoroughly.
    Looks like we never learn. What happened to the guy who lost RM 600 million in Sime Bank?

  6. Either way, both Musa and Najib owe the Malaysian public a full and satisfactory explanation. – LKS

    I have had enough of explanations, I am not bother about further explanations. I want general election now!

  8. Small matter la the “deal maker” will dispatch his super special task force to “handle” Sime Darby to get to the bottom like PKFZ, everything WILL BE covered up!

    GLCs in Malaysia are just the gravy trains designed for the Umnoputeras to dip their hands in. When the gravy runs out, the BN gomen will throw in rescue plan.

    This is THE reason why we need to vote in the opposition to clean up the mess!

  10. Dig the wrong hole?

    They will cover it up and dig more holes (to be covered up again) with the billions expected from the imposition of the GST. Meanwhile, EPF will be ordered to invest in the loss-making corp. As Musa Hitam will say, “It’s not me bloody money”

  12. No, only 1 hole, the main package scope stays at a little above 1B. But, the temporary scope, supporting scope and expenses that grow from original 0.7B to 2.4B. You don’t get to see these scopes after completion, as it was temporary and supportive.

    You don’t get 2 holes for that 3.4B…

    chengho, you are right for this. They bid low price compare to what they offered their sub-con.. This is GLC, this is where politic and business mix-up! they intertwined each other with detrimental reliance. You hold my ball, I slice your throat, where concept of, you help me, I help you! work perfectly!

    No worry, they can get compensated anyhow by the government. Sime-Darby is huge enough to fall. Seriously, you can’t get the farmers to build dam, you need zoo keeper!

  13. Re-posting: Tan Sri Musa Hitam (Sime’s Chairman) is in difficult position. It was just in a recent interview with The Star ( May 16, 2009) that he said he would like to change the common perception of GLC being incompetent or corrupt. He also said in that interview that his “resignation as Deputy Prime Minister was based on my principles”.

    However when when Sime Darby’s RM1.7 billion cost overruns blew up he now said that although neither he nor Board has problem in resigning he and Board are however not doing just yet as it must first be established that Board and him were “found guilty”; that presently there were “external people looking at the matter from the legal, financial and accounting aspects” and his decision either way “must be based on the principles of corporate governance.”

    This is not an issue of “guilty” in personal sense but an issue of “accountability by virtue of position! What more he said in 2009 interview that his “resignation as Deputy Prime Minister was based on my principles”. Whats the principles here? I mean whats the principles of corporate governance here?

    Musa was chairman since 2007. The losses were from incurred from Sime’s Engineering Oil Gas Division in relation to Bakun Dam and Qatar. Assuming if Musa had visited Qatar, if as expected, Sime’s Board and him have regularly been kept informed of the Group’s operating performance – and Bursa Malaysia requires quaterly financial results to be disclosed accourately to the market on quarterly basis – if as what Mahathir said, he was informed of Sime’s “cost overrun and delay three years ago (in 2007) when Musa became Chairman, if it were true as what a former Senior Sime executive said (in anonymous posting) that Musa acted like executive chairman to involve in/enquire into management matters by reason of his not getting along all that well with CEO Zubir (“the Assumptions”) – then how could he plead ignorance or defence to lack of supervision of Sime’s finances as part of his fiduciary duty?

  14. Examining further this issue of ‘principles of corporate governance’ – true there are “external people now looking at the matter from the legal, financial and accounting aspects of these losses” but these external probe is likely defined within parameters set by the Board and take directions from the Board.

    If the Board were in the front line of Public’s focus as to whether its or some of its directors have breached their fiduciary duties of oversight then whosoever on the Board, including the Chairman, who by position and conduct know or ought to know or have known about the gathering storm of cost overruns since 2007 and have power and responsbility to sound the early alert/alarm and mitigate these losses but have not done so ought, if accountability were the first objective, resign or, at the least tender resignation as gesture….

    If everyone stays put because Zubir has taken the fall, how could any the rest of board member who might be responsible for lack of vigilance be eventually held accountable when he is allowed to remain on the Board to exert a measure of control on how the external investigators and task force investigate?

    Can Board members be entrusted the objectivity to exercise oversight over investigations of the adequacy or otherwise failings of their own conduct and discharge of fiduciary duties?

    I am of course not saying that the whole Sime Board resign. For then there will, on the practical side, not be continuity of remaining board members with sufficient knowledge to organise (with or without) new directors the conduct and oversight of these investigations by external investigators and task force. However those whose oversight over these divisions losing huge sums, including the Chairman and independent directors and whoever independent director serving as chairman of the Public Account Committee chairman (if the Assumptions in 2nd para above were true) should have their roles immediately evaluated to determine they are prima facie accountable to resign in accord with the very “principles of corporate governance” that the Bursa/Securties Commission have been preaching. At least those accountable should been seen tendering their resignations. The public will what to know whether Sime’s external auditors have made provisions since 2007 and the extent any Board member or CEO had prevailed upon them not to be entirely transparent and detailed in these respects.

    The controlling shareholders are PNB and ultimately the government. It is theirs to make this call whether some directors should go on leave (if they don’t resign voluntarily), if the principles of corporate governance were really the guiding principles and not patronage or other extraneous considerations that some section of public think it is as well as has always been in the context of a GLC and its reputation with incompetence as Musa himself had said in The Star interview.

  15. For a year or so… Musa Hitam did not speak like he did before.
    Look at the Human Rights Forum ..he is the chairman too. What has he done for Malaysian human beings?
    Big trouble in Malaysia..like the burning of the churches and cow head incidents….he was overseas like Dollah.
    The appoint is about appointing a so call nice guy from UMNO B to be Chairman of Sime Darby…….and if Musa Hitam is sparkling clean…he will be very angry and make heads roll.
    I say…Najib is holding his balls and using him…to cover up as much as they can…on this puppet company for Mahathir to use to cheat Malaysians.
    Now that things are revealing how much more Malaysians are cheated by UMNO B gang of robbers and thieves…you can bet..it will go round and round..like a carousel…leading to no where…no real truths will ever be known.
    Hundreds of huge corrupted acts…tell me which one have we seen big fishes are caught and make Malaysians happy…real justice is done?
    No…it is always don’t listen to rumors and not enough witnesses to round up crooks.
    Yet…to others.so many are rounded up….questioned and beaten to death…based on collected reports…or rumors.
    Double standards must be applied or else UMNO B is finished.
    This is the best chance for Musa Hitam to prove not all UMNO B fellas are corrupted.

  16. Compliment should be given to Musa Hitam for his principled stand for corporate governance and accountability. If Mahathir, the cost overrun will swept under carpet follow Japanese practice.

    Dam project cost overrun is not uncommon. China Three Gorgeous Dam cost overrun is many times more than estimate, though considered their expertise. Sime has no experience in dam project but drag into after Bakun got into trouble, cronies have to be save at the GLCs expense. It was a common practice by PM for 22 years administration. There are many cost overrun government projects run into billions, how much government paid to Hicom for overrun Rawang-Ipoh railway project?

    Then GLC CEOs are all hopeless. Government instructions are a national duty. Bakun Dam is another Mahathir ‘SHIT’.

    GLC Transformation Plan 2004 by Pak Lah is not only a failure but caused more troubles. Doubtful qualification young Umnoputras recruited to become CEO to show off success of Umno in nutured putras. When one young CEO join Telekom, RM80 m was spent for change in corporate image. In years to come, Malaysian will witnessed these ‘shit’ results surface.

  17. Tun Musa,

    This is not the time for inelegant silence. Silence carries with it all the negative, nefarious, naughty connotations that one can imagine.

    As non-executive chairman, the public can understand that u wud not be a hands-on executive; hence u shud not share the blame. But u wud have the responsibility to all stakeholders to be forthrigth and forthcoming on all facets of the truth and nothing but the truth. So help u God.

  19. The Constitutions and the Toothless or Careless of the Parliament had made PM “One Hand over the Sky”. How many times MHT covered “Spoiled” pots with others’ lids!!
    How many of those had been done with the proper procedures in the Government and being audited?

    BDW had about 20 Corporations hiding from the Auditor General in 2006. Corporations under respective Laws has the “Freedom” of raising millions of loan. How many had been properly accounted?

    With Oil Revenue, why the country has to chasing after each and every individual in their advance salary tax? Same for Companies?
    How many times Pensioners were or are not paid in time?
    Why Government should be anxious of imposing Service Tax of RM50 for each Credit Card?

    Why Sime-Darby had to hold tight on a “Wrongly” issued Land Title of the Subang Ria Park? which should have no way to be issued because it was part of a Water Retention Pond and the Town Park for Subang Jaya.
    How much Book Value this “wrongful” title is contributing to the Sime Darby group? Sime Darby is also the primary Developer of USJ and other areas. If land can be misappropriated in Subang for Sime Darby, can these be happened to other Development or Cities nearby. MPPJ later on MPSJ were closely netted allowing the Rots to run from 1970’s up to NOW!!
    A great number of land lots in Subang Jaya which was highlighted in the State Structural Plan as Green Land or reserved land Dividers were/are under construction?

    The Wangsa Baiduri is the mother of a lot of housing scandal in Malaysia, making a lot of Developers snatching the Common Area or /even the facilities into their Assets.

    In this respect, how come Malaysia be 10th in the IMD list??

    The Rots started at least from the time of MHT and by his administration. NJ & BDW are just the watch dogs to see the Rots to continued and unplugged!!

    Nothing can be seen in unplugging the Rots in this direction in Selangor? Or, where has the unplugging started to work?

    Not only the Accounts of Sime Darby be looked into. But, also the BN Government! The PR Governments could well be sitting on “Bubbles”!!

    LOL to see. But with Tears!!
    Where have all the Hard Earned Tax Money Gone or inflated on Projects!!

    What happened in Sime Darby is only tips of the ICEBERG!!

    How many banks have their eyes closed on mortgage to so called Condo but facilities being mis-appropriated by Developers?
    They are also sitting on “Bubbles”!!

  21. Excerpts from The Star [Business] interview on Saturday May 16, 2009 with Tun Musa Hitam :

    Questioner Roderick, Sabah: “What is the major change that you would like to see or work towards at Sime Darby?”

    Tun MH: [Quote] “I would like to see a change in the perception that GLC (government-linked company) is a dirty word. It is the common perception that GLCs get what they want and are allowed to get away with poor performance, at best, and utter incompetence if not blatant corruption, at worst.

    I would like to see Sime Darby be regarded as a bastion of leadership in ability, innovation and execution. I would like Sime Darby be regarded as a multinational corporation that has actually competed internationally without any support from anyone and has won contracts and projects.

    Just this week, we announced that it has become the first company in the world to successful sequence, assemble and annotate the oil palm genome. That is a remarkable feat and every Malaysian should be proud. I want this recognition to be tied in with the very core of Sime Darby.

    Something else that Sime Darby is looking into is the setting up of a whistleblower policy so that we can facilitate the free flow of opinions, be they negative or positive. We appreciate the scrutiny of the media and the blogs. We see this as constructive and use the opportunity to examine ourselves.” [Unquote]

  22. To be fair to Musa and the Board, the whole thing should not be squarely blamed on them. The basic issue is the practices and the sloganeering of the Ketuanan concept over the past 30 years. it has reached a stage where even a sincere comment is twisted to appear as if the others are trying to sabotage the very Institution itself. The scenario is such that it appears that the illusionist has indeed believe in the very illusion that he has created!
    Through years of misconception and sloganeering, the society, or at least a majority of it has come to accept the very illusion itself as truth. Any comment by others is twisted and flogged to make it appear as if they wanted to bury the very INSTITUTION itself. As a result the vast majority of the people has accepted characters like the Ibrahim Ali whose actions and behaviours over all these years would have made him a non-entity long ago in any thinking society! yes, characters like this will survive in the Malaysian society which is covered by self-created grandeur and pomps. To this date, reality has not set in, in fact based on the support given to such characters even by the previous BAPA of the nation, the MAJORITY will be taken for another ride and this time IT WILL BE like the song: River of No Return!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  23. Of course there are many other factors are at play in failures of GLCs including “Ketuanan”, subsidies mentality etc that breed the feeling of entitlement to use GLC as an extension of affirmative policies to enrich oneself and to be cavalier with other peoples money (there will always be govt bailout) etc and other follies of private non govt corporates to pursue growth for growth sake diversifying from one’s core business into other areas where has neither expertise track record nor competence (eg from proven record of plantation and housing to Bulhanine and Maydan Mahzam and Maersk Oil Qatar projects in Qatar & Bakun hydroelectric dam project in Sarawak!)

    But still it was Tun Musa who boasted that Sime would be the flagship to restore ‘principles of corporate governance’ in the fraternity of GLCs having poor public perception. Doesn’t he have to walk the talk?

    Being “non executive” may exonerate one from failure of managerial and executive duties but at Board level it is NOT exculpatory of failure or breach of fiduciary duties owed by all directors and their chairman especially independent directors on the audit committee to the public listed company and by extension the public investors/shareholders/PNB!

    [A fiduciary duty is a legal or ethical relationship of confidence or trust that directors, even non executive, owe to the Company: it is an obligation of a very strict standard of undivided loyalty to act at all times with due care in the best interest of the company, not to have any personal interest unless disclosed and permitted by the company etc]

    A major financial fiasco of the proportion of RM1.7 billion does not ereupt overnight, incurred within a flash of (say) ½ a year (though its possible but not probable). The problems/cost overruns started accumulating even before 2007 merger and were known by then but everyone kept quiet for next 3 years?

    Internal audit, compliance division and external audit report and ought to report regularly to the directors at Board level chaired by the Chairman. The board meets regularly to decide on policy matters, to discuss the projects progress and to discuss on the monthly performance of holding co. and subsidiariues withgin group.

    What happened to the internal control system in the Company? Did it fail? If it failed aren’t the Board accountable and responsible for not setting up proper internal control system? If it didn’t fail and have brought the looming cost overruns to attention of the Board, were its members either sleeping or not bothered? Either case how do they exculpate themselves from discharging fiduciary duties of supervision and oversight when these problems, if one believes Tun Dr Mahathir, have been festering since 2007….?
    The board has a responsibility to the company’s 10.5 million shareholders, including its controlling shareholder PNB and by extension ASM holders, its 100,000-odd employees and the communities it serves worldwide! It has duty of transparent disclosure to the investing public and fund managers. This kind of financial HIV can be suffered in silence for so many years and disclosed only to others affected when it is full blown AIDS?

    .

  24. WTF happened? No point guessing. Just tell us. Isnt bakun a national project? And isnt sime a national company (described by umno as glc)? So tell us. We have the right to know.

    Of course the umno government is not about to do that which it has never done before. Besides, bones, skeletons and rotting body parts could come falling off the cabinets in their offices and in their homes and in the homes of their relatives, mistresses and lovers and cronies. Too messy. And too risky. So no. Cover-up is the obvious option. The usual option.

    But how do we counter cover-ups? The ballot box is one place we can do it. The better way is to keep a keen ear out for rumours and to believe in them. What else do you expect umno? We have a right to be fed with the relevant information. Dont we? And rumours too may be relevant as long as they are about the dam!

    So umno tell us which one hurts you more, truths or rumours? The choice is yours to pick. Nice spot there. I say. Stuck right in between the warewolves and the vampires.

  25. Has is ever occurred to you that GLCs were set up to siphon public money into private coffer? Running businesses and enjoying perks using someone else’s money – that is the Malaysia’s GLCs’ model. It is not just SimeDarby. ALL GLCs, statutory boards, and government agencies are like that. They will emerge one at the time, read my lips.

  27. Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), as a major shareholder of Sime Darby Bhd, so far remain silent on this issue.

    We have not heard any response,statement or any action taken from PNB itself regarding on this issue.

    We could only hear statements and responses from the Minority Shareholder Watchdog Group (MSWG).

    We are aware that Deputy Chairman of Sime Darby Bhd holds the Chairmanship of PNB.

  28. When contacted, Selangor Local Government Committee chairman Ronnie Liu said Sharipah’s transfer had nothing to do with the controversy but it was a decision that was made earlier by the state secretary.

    “It is part of the rotation system among local council heads of department implemented by the state government late last year,” said Liu.//quoted from the star

    See the farting similarity here between BN and PR when coming to dealing with government servants. We are just not man enough to make honest statement that everybody knows. This bl**dy nincompoop culture is everywhere, now spreading to PR exco also.

  30. The whole arguments are building upon the basis of the board and chairman of sime-darby are there to protect the share holder’s interest. What if such expectation is no longer true anymore after 308. The recent sub-prime crisis shows that most huge-enough-to-fall corporate, their CEOs’ role for benefits of shareholders are in doubts. We are talking US, with presumption good governance and accountability are given. Back here in bolehland, tell me an example of accountability and good governance. GLC are mixing point of politic and business, this is where detrimental linkages and reliance between political power and business power, this is where human greed can be satisfies to its max..!.

  31. In Bolehland, I believe any sane person will never ever invest in those so called GLCs. They can be the biggest and most profitable(no competition allow) companies. But if they are run by a bunch of greedy big white sharks and their cronies, you not only get zero return, but you might get burn real bad.
    If such big companies are run by unethical and greedy CEOs and his cronies, who have connections to ruling politicians, and who do not know what the companies are doing, in this case for example, “Slime Derby”, the end result, billions$$$$$$$$ ended up in their big fat pockets. End of the day, who cares, big daddy will eventually bail them out. Of course, with our rakyat hard earned money!!
    Sigh…….

  32. One of the reasons for the non-performance of most GLCs now including Sime Darby is that most of the directors are linked to the political parties and only a few have a good pedigree in the industry but they do not call the shots.
    The other possible cause of the failure of Sime Darby is that not all the vital aspects of the projects were made known to top management and those on the ground tried to keep things hidden for their own reasons.
    Coming within a few years of the mega-merger of the plantation giants, it shows that the process to obtain the Synergy Drive has failed miserably.

  34. If one takes the stance that corruption is the norm rather than the exception in the corridors of power, then nothing good can come out of such mergers – only greater ruin for the nation.
    We should use the example of synergy drive to work together to get rid of the corrupt system we have tolerated – by voting to change the government.

  35. Just like most Senators, bosses of GLCs r political appointees of UmnoB/BN
    Many of them r not fit 2 b Senators n bosses of GLCs
    They only how 2 put their hands inside cookie jars 2 grab more n more cookies
    D GLCs meanwhile on autopilot destined 2 crash n then 2 b rescued with Petronas $$$

  36. hi guys….petrol is 15 sen higher …announced just now.
    That will lead to a chain reaction to some essentials…making the poor getting poorer.
    Naturally you will get ball the excuses that ordinary folks will just accept and live with it.
    There will never tell you we have trillions that will withstand any short falls…because massive mis-managements and corruptions have cheated all Malaysians…by the most corrupted government in Asia.

  37. Most infrastructure projects are bidded by the potential main contractors in a way of measurement by bill of quantities, with exception for some fixed-cost items such as mobilisation of machineries and demobilisation of machineries.

    Sime Darby CEO should have first been advised by a professional consultant engineer and a professional quantity surveyor before getting a finalised concept about the total capital expenditure about the Bakun Hydroelectric Project. The main reason why Sime Darby was willing to bid a much lower price as a Main Contractor for the Bakun project was because Sime Darby wanted to undercut the bid which had originally been awarded to a Dubai-based company. The later withdrawal of the Dubai-based company and the entry of Sime Darby as the replacement of the Main Contractor was mainly due to some undesirable political interventions happened during Pak Lah’s administration.

    In fact, the true problem which lied with Sime Darby’s bid in the Bakun Project was not that of the cost over-run ones. The actual problem lied in the cost underestimation by Sime Darby in its bid as the main contractor. Since the Bakun project might not be a project of one lump-sum price bid, most likely Sime Darby would be reimbursed with those actual costs incurred based on the bill of actual quantities used in the project. The ultimate cost-bearer will still be the tax-payers of Malaysia because the Bakun project is a Federal Government investment project.

    The firing of Sime Darby’s CEO was just a scape-goat finding show play in order for Barisan Nasional decision makers to escape from having to bear the final responsibility in making the wrong judgement when doing the cost estimation for the Bakun project.

    We will continue to see that Malaysia’s GLCs are going to cause more and more similar kind of corporate bad news being released to the public ocassionally in view of the continuance of the poor governance and red-tape of Barisan Nasional government, which will continue to create much more mismanagement in the GLCs.

  38. So the scenario could be like this in Bolehland :

    1.Secure the government contract by underbidding or other means.
    2.Give out the lucrative parts to crony contractors.
    3.Suck up the losses and ask for government help.
    4.Increase taxes for ordinary Malaysians.

    Such a good strategy to make money for some.
    We should have the SD Executives face ther MPs like how they do it in the USA – even the Fed Chairman has to report on money matters.
    Cannot operate on “I help you, you help me” paradigm.

  40. Malaysians are going to hear a lot more of such shenanigans from GLCs and any establishments that is government. It is more than just simple benign negligence, incompetence and inefficiency. It is pure theft and robbery as they make hay while there is still some sunshine. Just mark this statement.

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