CHIEF Minister Incorporated (CMI) enables the Penang government to engage in commercial land transactions, like the RM156 million lease on a piece of land near Lebuhraya Peel in George Town to a private hospital.

“The state can only grant TOL (temporary occupancy license) annually or lease the land for 99 years, seeking a full one-shot payment,” Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today.

“In the case of Island Hospital, they have not even secured the license from the Federal Government for its hospital project to pay the state the full RM156 million for the land.

“So, we dealt through the CMI. Other states also have similar practices.”

Lim was explaining CMI’s role in the state’s decision to lease the land to the Penang Island Hospital for its RM2 billion expansion project.

The decision had been criticised by Barisan Nasional since the project was announced about two weeks ago. 

The 2.6ha Lebuhraya Peel land, which belonged to the state government, was transferred to CMI to allow the land transaction that would gain the state RM156 million.

The land lease will earn the Penang government a RM8 million profit over the land’s market value of RM148 million, which was based on the valuation of the Finance Ministry’s Valuation and Property Services Department. 

Lim said CMI was a state government entity with officers attached to the State Secretariat. 

CMI, which was set up under Lim’s administration, also had to go through the state executive council for policy decisions, he said.

“If they want to say the previous administration did not need a company like CMI, I would say they didn’t have a RM2 billion investment from a private hospital coming to Penang.

“They didn’t have a convention centre like SPICE, a multi-million ringgit refurbishment of Komtar and a restoration of Penang Hill,” he said.

Lim also rubbished accusations that it was his decision to lease the land.

He said all decisions on the Lebuhraya Peel land were made by the state executive council.

“Can the person who made the allegation show proof that the decision was made by one person? Can he prove that I decided on my own?

Yesterday, it was reported that Penang Gerakan Youth chief Jason Loo had claimed that the sale of state-owned land in Penang could be decided by one man, the chief minister. – May 31, 2017.