Mainboard-listed Darco Water Technologies has appointed Kong Chee Keong as its new CEO on Sept 1.
Kong has also been appointed as executive director to the board of the company.
Kong was previously at Penvest Co, an exempt private company limited by shares in Singapore. Penvest is said to be primarily interested in other holding companies.
He has also previously held the position of director in Darco Water Technologies.
Kong replaces outgoing CEO Poh Kok Hong, who was terminated from his position on Aug 30.
Poh’s last day of employment will be effective on Feb 28, 2022 following a six month notice period.
In an Aug 30 filing on SGX, Poh indicated that there were several unresolved differences in opinion on material matters between him and the company’s board of directors.
These include the Gaoyi Project in August 2019, which “does not seem to be viable” to Poh; and the Nambo Project, where the reversal option should have been exercised earlier in Poh’s opinion.
Poh also stated his reservations “regarding the recent appointment of the new executive director”.
“His appointment was finalised with the approval of the majority of the board, minus my vote,” he wrote in the filing.
While Poh did not name names, the last executive director appointed to the company was Zhao Yong Chang in June.
Zhao was, on June 30, appointed executive director and chairman of the investment committee of Darco Water Technologies. His past working experience includes being the director of water division for Advanced Holdings and executive director for its water subsidiaries from December 2007 to July 2017.
Zhao has a direct interest of 12,500 shares in Darco Water Technologies.
Finally, Poh also took issue with the Wuhan Kaidi whistleblower report, which was flagged on June 24, 2021.
According to him, Darco Water Technologies “could have acted with more decisive measures sooner”, in his view.
In the report, the whistle blower alleged that the company’s executive chairman had instructed the head of finance of Wuhan Kaidi Water Service Company to modify certain key financial figures in Wuhan Kaidi Water Service Company’s audited financial statements for the FY2019 ended December.
The modified accounts submitted to the bank “misrepresented the true financial performance and position of Wuhan Kaidi Water Service Company”.
Based on preliminary investigations, it was found that Wuhan Kaidi Water Service Company recorded a profit of RMB1.7 million for FY2019 as opposed to a loss of RMB23.2 million as reported to Darco Water Technologies.
Following the release of the report, former executive chairman and executive director, Wang Yaoyu tendered his resignation “due to personal reasons”.
See: Darco chairman resigns following whistle blower's report of modified accounts
Wang had a deemed interest of 13% in Wuhan Kaidi Water Service Company.
Shares in Darco closed flat at 18.6 cents on Aug 31.
