ISKANDAR PUTERI: The lapse of Bandar Malaysia's development agreement with the Iskandar Waterfront Holdings Sdn Bhd (IWH) and China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC) consortium did not affect any funds from a state-linked company.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor Sdn Bhd (KPRJ) did not have any direct involvement with the consortium.
He said KPRJ was also not involved in funding or any deposit involved in the recent deal involving Bandar Malaysia.
"As a shareholder in IWH via KPRJ, the state government abides by the stand made by TRX City Sdn Bhd and accepts any decision decided by the IWH and CREC (consortium) board of directors.
"We believe it was a fully commercial, professional decision and should not be politicised.
"More importantly, all expenditure, including the investment costs, had been paid with an advance coming from IWH and CREC, without any funds from KPRJ," he said in his winding-up speech at the state assembly meeting here today.
Khaled said the claim by Dr Boo Cheng Hau (DAP-Skudai) and Tan Chen Choon (DAP-Jementah) in the recent session that there was a RM178 million deposit involving KPRJ was untrue.
Khaled said on the part of the IWH, there were no losses in deposit because based on the agreement that was cancelled, all deposits were returned if ever that was a cancellation.
"For your information, all deposit totalling RM785 million was returned to the IWH and CREC consortium on May 9, 2017.
“Therefore, there is no issue of losses incurred by IWH, KPRJ or the state government due to the cancellation of that agreement recently," he said.
Khaled also denied a claim that KPRJ's performance and financial status was critical.
He said in the 20 years since it was set up, KPRJ recorded annual profits of RM80 million for the company and RM130 million for its group.
"Based on the audited account of 2015, KPRJ group recorded cumulative profits totalling RM1.6 billion for the company and RM2.6 billion for the group," he said.