GEORGE TOWN, Jan 3 — The State Commission of Enquiry (SCE) into the deadly October 21 landslide in Tanjung Bungah was formally gazetted on December 21.
Penang governor Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas assented on December 6 to the formation of the SCE that will comprise Datuk Yeo Yang Poh, Datuk Gue See Sew and Prof Ramli Nasir as commissioners.
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who announced this at his office today, said Yeo will chair the commission and decide on the date of the first sitting for the public hearings.
“The commissioners will carry out the inquiry to find out the causes of the failure of temporary structures in a work site incident that took place at Tanjung Bungah on October 21 at the Taman Sri Bunga construction site including whether the causes were related to the nearby quarry,” he read out one of the terms of reference of the commission.
The SCE was given six terms of reference including finding out whether the incident that led to 11 deaths was due to negligence, breach of professional duty or misconduct or deliberate act.
The SCE is also tasked with recommending appropriate legal action, examine whether all necessary approvals for the project were obtained, to recommend any appropriate measures to be taken to prevent a recurrence, and other findings that may be related to the incident.
Lim said there was no delay in gazetting the formation of the SCE as the process had to be done in accordance with the Commissions of Enquiry Act 1950.
“There was no delay in forming the SCE, it is normal to take this time to get consent and gazette it,” he said.
The letter of appointments of the commissioners will be issued today, he added.
Earlier today, Penang Gerakan Youth chief H’ng Chee Wey criticised the Penang state government for taking more than two months to form the SCE.
He accused the state government of not taking the incident seriously and called on the state to speed up the process in order to hold the public enquiry soon.
