This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 31, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officials have been checking the offices of Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) daily concerning 64 land deals made under former Federal Territories (FT) minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor’s purview.

Kepong member of parliament (MP) Lim Lip Eng confirmed this yesterday during a meeting between Kuala Lumpur MPs and Kuala Lumpur Mayor Tan Sri Mhd Amin Nordin Abd Aziz.

“The mayor had confirmed to us that MACC officials have been paying daily visits to the DBKL offices, to investigate these land deals made under Tengku Adnan’s purview,” he told a news conference yesterday.

On May 16, Lim lodged a report with the MACC on the 64 parcels sold by DBKL between 2013 and 2018. The Kepong MP had said then that most of the land transactions were done without open tenders and at below market prices.

Yesterday, Lim said at least 10 of the 64 tracts still have DBKL stated as the landowner, meaning the land titles have not been changed despite the sale to developers.

“For this issue, we would like to seek assistance from the chief secretary to the government (Tan Sri Ali Hamsa) to look into this matter.

“According to the mayor, only the chief secretary or the Federal Territories minister can give their consent to the Wilayah Persekutuan land and mines office for DBKL to terminate the deal,” he said.

Lim added that the mayor had told the MPs that DBKL would give its full cooperation to the MACC in its investigations into the land deals.

The other MPs present at the meeting with the mayor were Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil, Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh, Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun, Bandar Tun Razak MP Datuk Kamarudin Jaffar, Wangsa Maju MP Datin Paduka Tan Yee Kew, Setiawangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad and Batu MP P Prabakaran.

On a separate matter, Kok Wai said the RM180 million provision for the repainting of public housing and people’s housing projects, announced a few months before the 14th general election (GE14) has been cancelled.

Kok Wai said the appointment of 10 contractors for the job was done without an open tender. “Ten contractors were elected by DBKL for the project via direct negotiations, and not via open tenders, and the total cost of this project, approved before GE14, is RM180 million.

“These appointed contractors are the same contractors appointed for the renovation of DBKL offices and the former FT minister’s offices. During the meeting, the mayor said this project has been cancelled,” said Kok Wai.