Waiting for new application

2010/02/09

By V. Shankar Ganesh

SHAH ALAM: The Selangor government has rejected the RM1.3 million quit rent payment made by the Selangor Poverty Eradication Foundation (YBK) as it wanted to wait for a fresh application from the foundation. Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said the land issue in Serendah was complex and the state government was scrutinising the transfer of the land.

The quit rent paid by YBK was only for four of the 33 lots that it received from the state in 1994.

The total land area that YBK received is 876ha.

YBK had not paid its quit rent for 13 years although it was given a huge discount on the land premium.

The arrears stood at about RM5.7 million as of last year and YBK made the payment of RM1.3 million in August last year.

It is believed that the state government was handling the case as a whole piece and not each lot separately.

This is evident from the state government's move to seize the land from YBK and rejecting the RM1.3 million payment.

Yesterday, Mohamed Tamin Mohd Yusof, the director of YBK subsidiary Permodalan YBK, lodged a report at the district police headquarters here.

He claimed abuse of power over the returned RM1.3 million as the state government had accepted it earlier.

The amount was returned with the RM5.5 million quit rent payment made by the Malacca Foundation on behalf of YBK last week.

The land was supposed to be developed as part of Universiti Teknologi Mara's (UiTM) campus in Serendah.

Khalid welcomed police to investigate the matter.

"The investigations will shed light on the conduct of transaction and the awarding of the land to the foundation.

"For too long, land transactions under the state government have not been transparent and, therefore, open to speculation of power abuse and cronyism."

He said the state government was ready to assist the police, especially in explaining the complexity of the asset transaction.

He added that although YBK had made its accounts public, there was still a need to scrutinise the transfer of the land from government property to private ownership.

Khalid said the state government would appoint a corporate investigator to ensure that the rights of the state and the people were protected.

The Selangor government and YBK had been at odds over the land where the UiTM campus was to be built since the state government told YBK that the menteri besar would be made chairman of the foundation, executive councillor in charge of welfare and a member of the board of trustees.

The state government justified this demand as it wanted to have a say in the running of YBK since it had received land from the government at low premiums.

However, YBK had refused to accede to the demands and the state government is close to seizing the land as YBK had defaulted on the quit rent.