SEPUTEH MP Teresa Kok wants City Hall to come clean on a land deal in which it sold prime land in Taman Desa at below market price to a developer. 

Kok said the Auditor General’s Report 2016 stated that City Hall sold land for RM24.07 million to Garuda Searah Sdn Bhd (GSSB) for the development of Residensi Desa Satumas (Rumah WIP) 

“The Residensi project will cover three hectares of prime land. If the land was sold at RM24 million, then the price per square foot is about RM74. 

“However, the market price of land in Taman Desa is RM400 per square foot.

“This shows that the developer had paid a very low price,” she said at a press conference outside the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office in Kuala  Lumpur today. 

Kok had accompanied Taman Desa resident Edmund Teoh to report the undervalued land sale to MACC. 

The project next to the former Taman Desa water park in Desa Valley, consists of 3,002 units in seven blocks 

Kok said the AG’s report showed City Hall did not offer a limited tender to the developers and that the land sale was completed via direct tender last year.

“City Hall did not set up an evaluation committee nor were evaluation work papers released.

“City Hall shortlisted the proposals it received into two schedules.

“GSSB is a new company that was set up on March 11, 2015. The audit report cannot determine if the company has the capacity for housing development as the company is registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia as an exporter and importer of various items.”
Kok said City Hall and the Federal Territories Ministry must explain why the land was undervalued. 

“The auditor report clearly shows that there is some misappropriation by City Hall.  

“Given that City Hall has approved many housing projects in Kuala Lumpur without following the Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020, which has yet to be gazetted, MACC has to look into this,” she said. 

Teoh said nearby residents were concerned about the high-density development and that he had filed a report at MACC based on the Auditor-General’s Report. 

“MACC has taken note of my report which they said they would have to forward to the MACC branch in Putrajaya. 

“I will have to wait two weeks for a finalised report,” he said. 

Kuala Lumpur mayor Mhd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz said Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor would answer to the MACC and auditor-general on the allegations. 

“This was open bidding that went to the highest bidder (Garuda Searah). This was based on selection and we went for the best. 

“Seven companies participated and it went to the company with the best track record,” Amin told The Malaysian Insight.

Amin said that the developer was aligned with big companies and was known to be one of the speediest workers.

“The developer has delivered 15,000 units of Rumah WIP months ahead of the completion date. 

“It is a top performer and it completed the units seven months ahead of schedule.” – December 6, 2017.