THE Penang Land and Mines Department has yet to comply with a request by a 1Malaysia Development Bhd-related company to change the ownership for three lots of land in the state.

Apart from this, the state has also lodged a caveat to block any transaction of the land.

However, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said that as of June this year, the local authorities had yet to receive any application for planning permission to develop the three lots.

The debt-laden 1MDB, through the company 1MDB RE (Ayer Itam) Sdn Bhd, owns three lots of land in suburban Air Itam and Paya Terubong, measuring 61.069 sq m, 15,681 sq m, and 18,265 sq m respectively.

“The Land and Mines Department received a legal letter on April 14 saying that 1MDB RE (Ayer Itam) Sdn Bhd had changed its name to Ayer Itam Properties Sdn Bhd.

“The company asked for the lots’ ownership to be changed to the new name, but the state government has yet to do so,” Chow (PH-Padang Kota) said during question time to an oral question by Joseph Ng (PH-Air Itam).

Last month in the Dewan Rakyat, the status of the three lots were also questioned by Wong Hon Wai (PH-Bukit Bendera)

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said in his July 19 reply that the ownership of 1MDB land in Penang’s Air Itam suburbs had been sold to a company based in the Cayman Islands.

Silk Road Southeast Asia Real Estate Ltd is based in George Town on Grand Cayman, the biggest of the Cayman Islands in British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean.

This transaction happened almost a year ago. Money was paid but the shares were not transferred.

It is known that the Air Itam land sale took place when the Penang government had put a freeze on all transactions related to the 1MDB land.

The freeze was ordered by Lim several years ago when he was Penang chief minister to compel 1MDB to explain its multi-billion debt scandal and the ownership of the Air Itam land.

Days before the 2013 general election, then-prime minister Najib Razak, who founded 1MDB, announced that the Barisan Nasional federal government would build 9,999 units of low- and medium-cost housing in Air Itam.

In 2016, the land in Air Itam and other 1MDB properties were transferred to the Finance Ministry, which was also controlled by Najib, who was its minister. – August 9, 2018.