A FORMER army chief and an aide to Hishammuddin Hussein have been named in a government report for using their influence to relocate a project to build an army camp to Paloh, Johor, to shore up the vote bank for the former defence minister just before the 14th general election.

The special audit report on land swaps at the Ministry of Defence (Mindef), sighted by The Malaysian Insight, showed that the Paloh camp was built  to help Barisan Nasional retain the Paloh state seat in Sembrong. Hishammuddin is the MP for Sembrong.

The report named former army chief Raja Mohamad Affandi Raja Mohamad Noor and Hishammuddin’s political secretary, Onn Hafiz Ghazi, for interfering in the project.

The interference resulted in Port Dickson losing out to Paloh.

According to the report, when the cabinet agreed to privatise the Kinrara camp in December 2012, the developer was asked to build a logistics training centre for the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) in Sendayan, Negri Sembilan, and an army base in Port Dickson.

The government’s valuation for the 38ha Kinrara land for a 99-year leasehold in May 2015 was RM567 million although the development cost for RMAF’s training facility and a new army base would only cost RM316 million.

Although the Public Private Partnership Unit (UKAS) suggested that the land swap value should be set at RM758 million in September 2015, the developer felt that the valuation was too high and appealed three times for it to be lowered, said the report.

Following that, the government agreed to lower the valuation to RM500 million. As the original costs for the Sendayan and Port Dickson facilities only cost RM316 million, both sides decided that the balance of RM184 million would be used to develop more facilities.

But before the contract could be finalised, Mindef decided to drop its plans to build facilities in Port Dickson and instead build a new camp in Paloh.

“On February 16, 2016, the defence minister’s political secretary (Onn) told Mindef (in a memo) that the Sembrong parliament secretariat suggested that the additional money from the Camp Kinrara privatisation be used to build a new camp in Paloh. 

“Minutes of a meeting by the secretary-general on the memo showed: ‘I have spoken to Onn. He agrees to prepare a proposal paper and follow up discussion’,” said the report.

Subsequent correspondence in Mindef on Camp Paloh said the proposal was one of the strategies to ensure a higher majority in the Paloh state constituency.

It was suggested that 500 army personnel would be moved from Camp Mahkota to Camp Paloh before GE14. Both Paloh and Mahkota are within the Kluang district.

Following that, Mindef issued two letters between January and April 2017, instructing the developer to acquire 25ha of land in Kluang to build Camp Paloh although the final contract had not been signed yet.

The land swap contract was unsigned as of October 2018.

“Acting on instructions, the developer bought the land in July 2017 for RM10.4 million and began constructing seven out of 29 building blocks. Mindef wanted the buildings to be ready by August 31, 2017.”

The report said the developer began work on July 3, 2017 although the local development order was only issued on July 4, 2017. By July 26, the developers had finished 98.41% of the first seven buildings.

“But the plan to transfer voters from Camp Mahkota to Camp Paloh failed as the buildings were not ready in time and there was no water or electricity supply to the camp,” said the report.

Among the conditions needed before army voters can be moved into a new camp include having an operational guard house and barracks, perimeter fencing, kitchens and weapons storage units.

“Going through the chronology of the events (dating back to 2011), this project was contractor-driven as the project was not within Mindef’s strategic defence plan.

“As such, it was unsurprising that there were problems with the job scope and the location of the development.

“After our discussions with Mindef officers, the audit team believes that there would be no Camp Paloh if not for the political interference as the facilities in Port Dickson were more urgent.

“Camp Mahkota in Kluang also had extra land that could have been used for more facilities. Moreover, the land and buildings in Camp Mahkota were left unused and had fallen into disrepair,” said the report.

The audit, headed by former auditor-general Ambrin Buang, suggested the Kinrara land should be revalued and that surplus from the project should be deposited into the government’s coffers.

“If the government is unable to renegotiate with the developer, it should have an open tender for the project.”

The audit committee urged the government to investigate Raja Affandi, former Mindef chief secretary (KSU) Abdul Rahim Mohamad Radzi and former Mindef deputy secretary (TKSU) Zaiton Johar for instructing the developer to start the project before the contract was signed.

The committee also wants the government to investigate Onn for issuing a memo to Mindef on the Camp Paloh development and influencing the ministry’s decision.

The special audit report on land swaps at the ministry was tabled by Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu last Thursday and available on Mindef’s website.

Earlier, Mohamad disclosed 16 land swaps carried out during BN’s time, which resulted in the government losing more than RM500 million.

The 16 land swaps took place in Jalan Ampang in Kuala Lumpur; Tanah Batu Uban, Penang; Bukit Raja, Selangor; Pientong, Johor; Tanah Rata, Pahang; Bandar Kinrara, Selangor; and Stampin, Sarawak. – May 14, 2019.