THE Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is asked to probe alleged corruption and power abuse in a case of a private company appropriating government land in Medan Imbi, Bukit Bintang, for the development of an office building.
 
The Federal Territories Ministry filed a report with MACC this morning alleging corruption that took place three years ago and resulted in the development of a six-storey office building and several durian kiosks on two plots of government land in the city.

The FT minister’s special officer Zulhazmi Shariff filed the report at MACC headquarters in Putrajaya on behalf of the ministry.

Zulhazmi said the 0.14ha land was originally earmarked for a playground and nursery but it now housed  a modern building and fruit stalls instead.

“Both plots of land do not belong to the private company or even to City Hall (DBKL). They belong to the government,” he said.

“An internal investigation by the integrity unit of City Hall revealed that the corrupt practices and abuse of power have been happening since March 2015.”

Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad brought the case into light on January 16 when he asked how the company had managed to develop the land in 2016 without paying rent or premium for the land worth RM20 million.

The minister said several figures in the former administration were behind the project.

The integrity unit had discovered that the land in question, Lot 568 belonged to the Federal Territories Land and Mines Office, and Lot 716 to the Federal Territories Land Executive Committee under the supervision of the chief secretary to the government.

“This is a sign that abuse of power and malpractices had clearly occurred in DBKL during the previous administration,” he said, adding that it was now up to MACC to investigate those who are involved in the project.

“I expect the DBKL officers involved would say that they were only following instructions. (In this case), a clear instruction would be what was ordered by the Minister of (Federal) Territories at the time, such as ‘please process’ (sila uruskan), ‘take immediate action’ (ambil tindakan segera),” Khalid was reported as saying.

On whether the owner of the land had taken action on the matter, he said it was possible that the landowner was powerless to take action because it was under the administration of the previous government.

Khalid had also been reported as saying that an option available to the owner is to apply to the government to purchase the land at the current market price and to pay all premiums and development approvals, as well as the fines to be imposed.

Meanwhile The Edge Markets identified the owner of the building on the two plots as Willowcrest Management Sdn Bhd, a company linked to businessman Tee Yam@Koo Tee Yam.

The Companies Commission Malaysia (SSM) website showed Tee Yam owned 99% of Willowcrest and Eco Habitat Sdn Bhd, 1%.

The shareholders of Eco Habitat are Tee Yam (90%), and Wong Siaw Puie and Ameera Encee Koo Abdullah who each own 5%. – January 23, 2019.