Johor's RM4bil water deal questioned

In the first Johor state assembly meeting after the general election, state opposition leader Dr Boo Cheng Hau has hit out at the BN state government for failing to come clean on RM4 billion worth of state transactions.

“I have asked this many times, even since the 12th state assembly, that after Syarikat Air Johor Holdings (SAJH) sold off its RM4 billion assets to Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad (PAAB), the money was used to pay off the state government debts, which is RM700 million.

“But where were the rest of RM3.3 billion channelled to?” he questioned when debating the sultan's royal address this afternoon.

SAJH is the state water supply concession company while PAAB or Water Asset Management Company (Wamco) is a wholly-owned company under the Finance Ministry.

Boo (right), who is also the state DAP chief, said the Johor government must explain to the people where the RM3.3 billion had gone to.

He said while the transaction had helped the state government to reduce its debts, its revenue had dropped to 17.7 percent or RM181 million.

“This made the state sustain a deficit of RM148 million in 2011,” claimed the Skudai assemblyperson.

According to Boo, out of the RM990 million state expenditure in the year, 70 percent or RM698 million was for administration while 25 percent, or only RM255 million, was for development.

The Johor government had signed a deal to sell SAJH's assets to PAAB in March 2009.

Under the water restructuring plan, the assets will then be rented to SAJH, allowing it to continue to supply water in the state.

Post of opposition leader not recognised

Meanwhile, in an unrelated matter, Johor speaker Mohamad Aziz today shot down a proposal to officially recognise the position of opposition leader.

“In our laws and orders, we don't have any single clause to state the position of opposition leader. Hence, (there is) no such thing to say that we need to create the position,” he said.

The former Sri Gading MP was responding a proposal from Johor Jaya assemblyperson Liow Cai Tung for the position to be officially recognised.

Although the state does not have an official position for opposition leader, Boo was agreed by Pakatan component parties to lead the people's representatives in the state assembly.

Commenting on this, Boo told Malaysiakini that while it's true that the state constitution does not state the position of opposition leader, the state assembly or government should amend the state constitution to officially recognise the position.

“It's time for change, we need to improve our legislative assembly democracy. We should be a good example for other assemblies in the world instead of a laughing stock,” he said.