BN told to reveal how much federal land it has sold off

A DAP lawmaker has turned the tables on the BN, asking the ruling coalition how much federal land in Kuala Lumpur it has sold off.

This is after BN's 'strategic communications team' yesterday questioned the DAP-led Penang government on how much of the state's lands remain, since it came into power in 2008

“The BN government should also be transparent about how much land owned by federal agencies in Kuala Lumpur have been sold since 2008, and how much is left," Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said in a statement today.

“Since BN has started talking about this matter, what would you say to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak exposing if any of the federal-owned land in Kuala Lumpur has been sold with an open tender?

“If they had not gone through open tenders, isn't this a form of corrupt practice?” Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng asked in a statement today.

Lim cited the example of Kuala Lumpur City Hall's (DBKL) sale of the Putra Bus Terminal to Umno without disclosing the amount of the transaction, following which the terminal is to be replaced with a 70-storey office and hotel tower.

“Prime Minister Najib therefore has the responsibility to disclose how much was paid for [the terminal]. What more after BN has made all sorts of speculation about how the Penang government has profited from the sale of state-owned land,” he said.

Najib, Lim added, should explain how much DBKL had been paid for the land and where Umno got the funds to pay for the purchase of public land.

Last December Kuala Lumpur mayor Mohd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz revealed that the terminal had been sold to Umno “many years ago”, prompting opposition MPs to query how the state-owned piece of land had become privatised.

Kiara reserve turned condo

The Segambut MP also asked Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor to explain why a portion of the Bukit Kiara forest reserve has been sold off to a private developer for eight blocks of highrise condominiums, allegedly without an open tender for the highest bid.

“Disclose how much was the sale price and how much was the profit,” Lim said.

The MP also claimed that Tengku Adnan was reluctant to sign the gazette of the draft Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan 2020, which he said would prevent more state land from being sold off to private developers.- Mkini