Thursday, November 19, 2009

What a bl***y waste of taxpayers money & "gaji buta"?

Selangor government is facing multi-million ringgit losses due to failed housing development projects in Bukit Botak, Selayang during the previous four Barisan Nasional administrations.

The third declassified documents revealed today showed state subsidiary, the Selangor Development Corporation (PKNS) could lose a further RM136.4 million if it went on with the projects.

The project started in 1986 when the state government planned to relocate 2,300 squatters on a 81.34 hectares (201 acres) to Bukit Botak due to the high density in Klang Valley.

Initially, the relocation of the Bukit Botak landowners started in 1986 under the tenure of the then menteri besar, Ahmad Razali Mohd Ali.

umno supreme council special meeting 260809 muhammad mohd taibThen in 1988, his successor Muhammad Muhammad Taib (left) appointed Shah Alam Properties (SAP) as the project development manager and RM17 million was allocated for various development costs.

However, due to technical setbacks, the project was abandoned in 1992 and SAP could not proceed with the plan.

The projects turned disastrous when in 1999, under menteri besar Abu Hassan Omar, a two-month Syarikat Delpuri Corporation Sdn Bhd (DCSB) was picked to replace SAP.

Several of the company directors did not have any experience in housing development and one of the directors was also a former Hulu Selangor land officer.

Despite the weaknesses, the developer was tasked to provide temporary homes and RM300 in subsidy per month (to those who refused temporary homes) until their homes were fully built.

The company was also required to develop 2,775 units of Semi-D, bungalows, offices, shops and flats. But project failed again and was abandoned for a second time.

The DCSB had also failed to develop the temporary houses as promised and did not make the payment of RM300 to the landowners.

Fraud involved?

In 2005, the administration of Mohd Khir Toyo, decided to terminate DCSB's contracts and instructed PKNS to take over 1,367 units of semi-Ds in order to revive the project.

But it did not see the light of the day as PKNS only managed to get into the land sites in January 2007, over a year after its appointment due to problems related to previous developer, DCSB.

"It is strange that DCSB was again appointed to develop 592 units, the most units compared to the other two - PKNS Infra Berhad and Selangor Industrial Corporation," said the documents.

"Although aware of the problem, the state government in 2007 instructed the land office to take over the low-cost housing that was supposed to be built by DCSB. But this did not take place.

"Based on information received, PKNS was given no choice but to take up this project although it was known that it would face great losses on its part," it said.

khalid ibrahim 301009Khalid (right) decided to terminate all development contracts relating to Bukit Botak due to losses that would be incurred by PKNS, which indirectly will affect the taxpayers in Selangor.

The state government had also set up an exco portfolio of housing, building management and squatters led by Iskandar Abdul Samad to investigate if there was cheating or fraud involved.

The committee comprising the Gombak land office, representatives from the exco, lawyers and representatives of the committees were to ensure only qualified landowners get their rights.

This measure was needed to be done as the investigation from the committee revealed that the land was given to individuals that were not entitled to it.

In summary, PKNS would have faced RM136.4 million in losses if the project went on and some landowners collectively would face RM7.87 million in losses because they had paid advance payments to DCSB.

"DCSB had also failed to show its ability in developing this area but then, it was reappointed to revive the project. In short, the previous state governments had failed to benefit the people in Bukit Botak," said the document.

[Source : Malaysiankini]

Geronimo's Take : This is really mis-management personified by these UMNO fellas, and yet they are thinking about running the state again. Fat hope! How could such a thing be happening for so long? What was our state auditor doing? What was our state legal advisor doing? What was the then ACA doing? We not only found our hard earned money flushed down the toilet bowel via the abandoned projects, but also paying the state officers for not doing anything - gaji buta.

The same thing applies to Catholic Ministers like Maximus Ongkili and Bernard Dompok. In my blog of November 15, the first two paras read : Home Ministry officials in Putrajaya today were stunned to learn that the word “Allah” had been used by Catholics in this country to refer to the Christian God hundreds of years ago. “I told them that ‘Allah’ had been used in this country because the lingua franca at that time was Malay,” Reverend Father Lawrence Andrew, the priest-editor of The Herald said. Now, if Ongkili and Dompok have done their jobs, the Home Ministry officials would not have been stunned, would they? Gaji buta.

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