This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 9, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: A lawmaker has questioned the finance minister’s claim that the information on the cost and size of the land in Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) acquired by Aroma Teraju Sdn Bhd from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) in 2015 is confidential.

Tony Pua (DAP-Petaling Jaya Utara) insisted yesterday the minister’s claim is an alleged cover-up of excessive payments by the finance ministry (MoF). Aroma Teraju is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ministry.

On July 31, Pua had asked the finance minister in Parliament about the cost and size of the TRX land acquired by Aroma Teraju. Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in a written response, said the information was “protected by a confidentiality clause between the buyer and seller”.

On Monday, Pua questioned why the information cannot be disclosed despite Aroma Teraju and 1MDB being owned by the MoF. Najib again said it was due to the agreement’s confidentiality clause to protect the commercial considerations of both parties.

“The minister chose to ignore that Aroma Teraju and 1MDB are wholly owned by the MoF,” Pua told a press conference in Parliament building yesterday. “What is the purpose of this secrecy when both parties in the agreement are owned by the government?”

He claims “there is only one reason for invoking this confidentiality clause, and it has nothing to do with the purported ‘commercial considerations’. It is to cover up the fact that MoF paid [an] over-the-top [amount] to buy back a fraction of the prime land it had sold at bargain basement prices to 1MDB in 2010.”

Pua said based on 1MDB’s 2011 financial statements, the 70-acre (28.3ha) tract of TRX land was acquired by the government for RM194 million, or about RM64 per sq ft, in 2010.

However, in the same year that Aroma Teraju acquired the plot from 1MDB, the latter also sold other parcels in TRX to other government-linked institutions, including Lembaga Tabung Haji, which bought 1.6 acres for RM188.5 million or over RM2,800 per sq ft, and Affin Bank Bhd, which purchased 1.25 acres for RM255 million or almost RM4,700 per sq ft.

“If Aroma Teraju paid anywhere near the prices paid by Tabung Haji or Affin Bank, it would mean Malaysian taxpayers would have been ripped off beyond their wildest imagination.

“Quite simply, 1MDB purchased land from the government at RM64 per sq ft and sold a fraction of the piece of undeveloped land back to the government five years later at an exorbitant thousands of ringgit per sq ft,” Pua alleged.