97 DBKL land transactions conducted without proper SOPs, says PAC

 

PAC found that DBKL did not have any SOPs for the disposal or sale of its land.

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 97 sale transactions on Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) land were carried out without referring to any SOPs since 2011, according to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Its chairman Wong Kah Woh said based on the proceedings conducted, PAC found the process was too lax and was exposed to abuse of power as well as lacked protection for DBKL and Kuala Lumpur residents.

He said PAC found that DBKL did not have any SOPs for the disposal or sale of its land.

“It was only after 2015 that DBKL had improved the land sale and disposal process by empowering the Privatisation Committee with the provision of a checklist incorporating more detailed procedures which obtained ISO certification (in 2017),” he said in a statement today.

For the proceedings from April 4 to Nov 12 this year, PAC had called among others former federal territories minister Khalid Abd Samad, former attorney-general Tommy Thomas, former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Mohd Shukri Abdull and former Kuala Lumpur mayor Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan.

Wong said PAC also found the draft Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020 approved by the minister was different from the draft plan displayed to the public in 2008 and the gazetted plan has yet to obtain feedback from all stakeholders.

He said more than 200 development orders had been issued by DBKL while awaiting approval by the federal territories minister on the plan which may cause negative effects to the environment by converting commercial zones and amending the density (plot ratio).

He added that PAC also found the management of Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan (YWP) which was involved in the purchase of DBKL land was exposed to conflict of interest as the federal territories minister and the Kuala Lumpur mayor are the foundation’s chairman and trustees board member respectively.

Apart from the management, YWP, which is a company registered under the Companies Act 1965, is not monitored by any authorities including the National Audit Department.

In this regard, PAC has proposed to the government that the sale and disposal of DBKL land should be conducted transparently based on a comprehensive set of SOPs apart from reviewing the Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020 by taking into consideration changes made in the original draft.

He said PAC also proposed that the functions of YWP be relooked in line with the objectives of its establishment to protect the interests of Kuala Lumpur residents while its status should be amended into a statutory body to enable more effective monitoring by the government.

According to Wong, members of the public can study the PAC Report on sale of DBKL land under the ministry by downloading the report from PAC’s website at www.parlimen.gov.my/pac. - FMT