GEORGE TOWN: Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was put on the spot by Umno lawmakers over the Lebuhraya Peel land sale for a hospital expansion project by a foreign investor.
State opposition leader Datuk Jahara Hamid grilled Lim over the secrecy shrouding the land sale deal via direct negotiation and also the reason it was fast tracked.
“We understand that the state government must bring in investment into the state, but our questions are over the method the RM156 million land deal was executed.
“Why is there so much secrecy surrounding it and why was it fast tracked via direct negotiations instead of going through an open tender,” she asked, during Lim’s winding up session at the State Legislative Assembly sitting here this evening.
Lim, in response, said that the land deal was not fast tracked as the state government has received the investment proposal from the foreign investor in 2015.
“The state government agreed to consider the proposal and in Aug 11, 2015 Island Hospital Sdn Bhd applied to purchase the 6.443 acres of land in Lebuhraya Peel.
“The Northeast land and district office then applied for valuation of the land from the Land Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH) through a letter dated Aug 27, 2015 and in a letter dated Oct 13, 2015, JPPH informed then that the land was valued at RM156 million for freehold or RM148 for a 99 years leasehold,” he said.
Island Hospital has plans to build an “Island Medical City” with a 1,000-bed hospital and a hotel.
Lim said the ownership of the land was transferred to the Chief Minister Incorporated (CMI) on Dec 16, 2015 and an offer letter was given to Island Hospital on July 12, 2016.
“The land sale and development agreement between CMI and Island Hospital was inked in Dec 19, 2016,” he said.
He also pointed out that the land was sold to Island Hospital under a 99-year leasehold for RM156 million as opposed to the RM148 million recommended by JPPH.
Lim said the land deal was not announced earlier as it was a big investment involving foreign investor, who had their own conditions and confidentiality clause.
Lim was then cornered by Shah Headan Ayoob Hussain Shah (BN-Teluk Bahang), who read a transcript of Lim telling the Parliament in 2008 that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act should criminalise those who did not practice open tender.
Reading the full transcript of Lim’s speech in the Parliament Hansard dated Dec 15, 2008, Headan said Lim, in his debate on the MACC Act 2009 had said that the act should also include a clause that all government transactions must be done via open tender.
“The practice overseas if there is no open tender, it can be considered as an offence which can be seen as ‘amalan rasuah’ (corruption),” Shah Headan read .
In response, Lim said 99 per cent of the state government’s projects worth RM39 billion were made through open tender, while the remaining 1 per cent were via direct negotiations with “game changers” such as IKEA, Intel, Motorola and others.
He said exception was made for these game changers as the economic value offered to the state was in “billions”.
“We make sure all deals were made via open tender. Direct negotiations are made usually for disaster relief or strategic investment. In this case, Island Hospital, IKEA and other big multinational firms.
“This is our policy but policies can be amended by the state executive council,” he said.