PJ SHOCKER: City council senior staff found to have awarded DODGY contracts

PETALING JAYA - Senior staff of the Petaling Jaya City Council's Legal Department awarded contracts and amended clauses in them which resulted in monetary loss to the council.

They have all been referred to the Disciplinary Committee for internal departmental action but councillors are clamouring that law enforcement agencies like the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police take appropriate action.

This is because an internal audit inquiry has discovered instances of fraud and abuse of power which has resulted in loss of revenue to council running into several hundred thousand.

In November last year the council became aware that Laguna deBay Sdn Bhd, had taken contempt proceedings against the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor and hauled the council to court for non-compliance and failure to honour undertakings in a consent agreement. It was claimed that council had acceded to the consent order.

"This claim was false as the councillors had never agreed to enter into any agreement with Laguna nor had authorised any consent order to be entered into," said Councillor Ir Lee Suet Sen in a statement.

The council, he said, was taken aback when it discovered that some of its staff had falsified documents and entered into a consent agreement after the outdoor advertising firm sued the Council.

Lee said an internal audit inquiry showed that senior staff members had unlawfully awarded 14 sites to Laguna deBay, without obtaining the approval of the Council.

Standard terms of billboard agreements approved by the state in 2009 had also been amended resulting in a loss of substantial revenue to the council.

The audit report, among others, acknowledged a clear case of abuse of power, fraud and misconduct by the senior staff of the legal department in particular, while the planning department was also implicated.

While investigations were in progress, Council members took it upon themselves to lodge reports with the MACC as well as with the police.

Lee's statement brings into open the divide between the Mayor and the councillors and the serious disagreements over how the matter is to be dealt with.

Previous attempts to make public the audit report was thwarted by the mayor who claimed such matter were only privy to the council and not the public. Attempts to get the council to make reports to authorities were pooh-poohed resulting in councillors acting on their own accord.

The audit report was submitted to the Mayor in May and the summary of report was only tabled at the full board meeting and adopted by councillors five months later.

Lee's statement was endorsed by three members of the audit committee — Teh Chi Chang, Cynthia Gabriel, and Jeyaseelen Anthony; and councillors Haji Mohd Ghazali Daud and Tang Fuie Koh (PKR). -Sundaily