A TASK force has been set up to investigate the Bukit Kukus landslide for criminal negligence, said Penang police chief Commissioner A. Thaiveegan.

The landslide occurred at a road construction site in Paya Terubong on Friday, killing nine foreign labourers.

Thaiveegan said the task force will be headed by state Criminal Investigation Department chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Zainol Samah.

“The probe will be carried out from the aspect of criminal negligence involving any party responsible for the construction site and its safety,” he told the media in a WhatsApp message today.

Yesterday, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow announced a special committee to probe into the fatal landslide.

The committee, which is not a commission of inquiry, will determine what happened at the construction site where the landslide took place, and identify the parties responsible, if any.

Chow said should the committee find elements of negligence, the findings would be forwarded to professional bodies.

Deputy Chief Minister I Ahmad Zakiyuddin Abdul Rahman, a civil engineer by training, heads the committee.

Other members include state public works exco Zairil Khir Johari and an engineer from the state secretary’s office, who will be appointed later.

It has been revealed that the contractor working on the landslide-hit site had failed to comply with the erosion and sedimentation control plan. This was discovered by the Ops Lumpur task force, under Zairil’s office, more than a week before the tragedy.

The city council said the contractor had also cut off a natural water source on the hill where the landslide happened, without properly diverting the water flow.

On Tuesday, Professor Habibah Lateh, a soil and landslide expert from Universiti Sains Malaysia, said sandy soil unsuitable for the hill-slope project had been used at the site. – October 25, 2018.