MP: Dodgy BN-era sale of 64 plots in KL just ‘tip of iceberg’

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — The allegedly dubious sale of 64 land parcels here for RM4.28 billion and without open tender when Barisan Nasional’s Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor was Federal Territories minister is just “the tip of the iceberg”, a federal lawmaker alleged.

Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng claimed of many more of such cases at the Federal Territories Land Office.

“There’s federal-owned land, federal agency-owned land like police reserve land, reserve land for rumah ibadat, that have also been sold to private developers, without tender,” he said in an interview with business weekly The Edge.

On the deals for the 64 plots covering 424 acres that are now under probe by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Lim additionally claimed he was told some of the land sales were brokered through WhatsApp messages.

“And, sometimes, I heard the bidding is just through WhatsApp messages. So, the highest bidder among the cronies will get it.

“Then the bidder will be told how much to pay to the government and how much to pay some parties… this is what I heard. It is for the MACC and police to investigate,” the DAP MP said, having also claimed many of the 64 land parcels were sold below market price.

“I asked the Mayor of KL (Tan Sri Mohd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz) about these 64 pieces of land, whether there was any open tender process, he answered with a question, ‘YB, ini semua mana ada open tender?’ ‘Ini semua arahan menteri… minuted,’ he said,” Lim added when claiming he was told the land sales were done without open tenders and upon the orders of a minister.

Lim previously pushed for a probe into the land deals, telling The Edge that the ownership of the land titles for some parcels were transferred even when no premium was paid.

“To me, this is fraud, so the MACC and the police (have to get involved). This is fraud, this is cheating, this is corruption,” he said, adding that some of the buyers of the 64 parcels of land are innocent and should have their names cleared.

Lim said Tengku Adnan had provided him, through a written parliamentary reply, the list of 64 parcels of land that were sold since 2013 until March 2018 with details of the buyers and premium paid.

“They were so sure that they would form the government that at the last session of Parliament, I asked a question, ‘Please tell me after you took office in 2013, how many pieces of land were sold by DBKL, by the KL Land Office, by the FT Ministry and also Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan?’” Lim said.

Lim said Tengku Adnan had, in the same reply, stated that the Federal Territories Ministry did not sell land and that the Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan, which the former minister chaired, is a private outfit not related to the government, and that the latter had also asserted that only DBKL sold land.

New Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad told The Edge that there were more dubious sales under the former administration.

“The actual number… the total, I am told, is more than 90 plots,” he was quoted saying, adding that most of these land were also owned by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).

“This is land that should have been kept as our land bank, for future development, but it was sold for various reasons,” he said.

He said DBKL has handed over reports on the 64 plots of land to MACC officially for investigation, and that DBKL will be following up on the remaining cases.

“The issue becomes sensitive because the buyers of the land were the same people. That was the big question mark, the first red flag, I suppose. I can’t comment too much on it; it is being investigated,” he said.

Khalid said DBKL’s yearly income of nearly RM3 billion should be sufficient for its operating expenditure.

“So, there is no reason for DBKL to sell land, which is why we are very suspicious of the sales. They (the sales) do not follow the SOPs (standard operating procedures); they do not follow the developments that are being approved; they do not follow the guidelines in terms of density, usage and so on and so forth,” he was quoted saying.

“As far as my ministry is concerned, for the future, we don’t see the need for any land sales and we want to make sure that the land use is in accordance with the local plan. As for the 2030 Local Plan, we will have it reviewed and made available to the public. We will make sure that DBKL acts professionally in all future cases.”