No conflict of interest, says Chow on exco man heading housing, environment

Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow said the appointment of S Sundarajoo as chairman of the housing and environment committees does not pose any problem.

GEORGE TOWN: Chief minister Chow Kon Yeow and his deputy, Jagdeep Singh Deo, have dismissed calls for a reshuffle of the housing and environment portfolios in the state government following concerns of possible conflict of interest.

Both portfolios have been assigned to one exco member – former property developer S Sundarajoo.

Chow said he did not see any conflict of interest as Sundarajoo’s previous company, Eco World, had built projects that “improved the environment”.

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“Plus, if the (portfolios) are held by two different people in the state government, it is still the same – the government will (ultimately) decide on planning permissions.

“If one person holds the housing portfolio and another holds the environment portfolio, they would have to come to the same table for decisions to be made,” he said at a press conference at the Penang state assembly building today.

On Aug 19, Aliran said having the housing and environment portfolios under one committee headed by a former property developer is a conflict of interest.

It said giving the two portfolios to a single person would be problematic as it raises concerns about how environmental issues related to housing development would be dealt with.

Jagdeep, who had held the housing portfolio for two terms, said Aliran’s comments were baseless.

He said the state government has been imposing conditions that any housing projects carried out in Penang must take into consideration the impact on the environment and climate.

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“When I held the local government, housing, and planning (portfolios), all of them were intertwined. The same thing will happen now with all the new executive councillors,” he said, adding that both he and Chow would ensure everything is “done properly”.

On a separate matter, Chow said that all assemblymen will be using the balance of the allocation from the previous 2018-2023 term as the new state government enters the fourth quarter of the year.

He said that spending caps have been imposed on previous assemblymen with their allocations so that there would be a balance to be used by their successors.

“The same applies to the opposition. If we have some balance left, we will continue with that,” he said when asked whether opposition assemblymen will receive equal allocations. - FMT