'Tengku Adnan abused power in exempting 23 highrises from scrutiny'

THE previous federal territories minister abused his power in exempting a total of 23 highrise developments in Kuala Lumpur in 2017 from Rule 5, which requires that the mayor inform and invite objections from registered owners of land adjacent to a proposed development, says Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng.

According to Lim, Rule 5 specified that owners be informed through advertisements in newspapers and exhibition when there was application for development in an adjacent land that involved the conversion of land use, zoning or increase in residential density. 

It is part of the Planning Development Amendment Rules 1994, a by-law under the Federal Territory Planning Act 1982.

Lim said Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor abused his power during his tenure as FT minister by wrongly using Rule 14, which allows local authority to exempt the exercise of the rules with the consent of the minister, to approve highrise projects that included commercial and free market developments. 

“He denied the right of the adjacent property owners to object against developments,” he said at a press conference in his office in Kepong on Saturday (Nov 17). 

Lim said DBKL documents seeking Tengku Adnan’s approval to exempt Rule 5 used such reasons such as affordable houses and expediting the target of achieving 50,000 affordable houses in Kuala Lumpur.

“But approval was also given to mixed, commercial and free market developments. It seems like Tengku Adnan acted as an agent helping these developers to get approval. 

“I will submit these documents to MACC to assist in their investigation on Monday,” he said.

“I believe this is only the tip of the iceberg as the data was only from one of his five years as a minister," he added. 

This latest revelation adds to the woes currently faced by Tengku Adnan. 

He was arrested by MACC and charged on Friday (Nov 16) with receiving RM3mil in bribes from property developers in connection with his official functions as the federal territories minister.

Lim's special assistant, Sean Oon, said they also doubted if Tengku Adnan read the DBKL documents before signing them. 

“The page where he signed was supposed to be page 5, but it was stated as page 4. The font and template were very different from the earlier pages. 

"It was the same for three separate documents. It makes us wonder if he even read the documents as they look like they were prepared separately,” he said.- Star