Don’t issue any threats, PAC warns Foundation

Kuala Lumpur: The Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has defended its findings in relation to Federal Territories Foundation or Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan (YWP) and the sale of Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) land.

Its chairman Wong Kah Woh said YWP’s moves to dispute the PAC’s findings by threatening to take legal action against him are considered an attempt to violate the integrity of Parliament.

“The statement is uncalled for and is an attempt to challenge and desecrate the Parliament.

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“All findings and investigation conducted on issues have been made without prejudice,” he said in a statement.

Wong has also warned that no one should doubt the PAC’s work or threaten to take legal action against the PAC chairman or its members while they are carrying out their responsibilities.

“Any accusations or threats targeted at the PAC or any of its members in relation to issues that are being investigated or reports that have been tabled, is interfering with the powers of the Parliament as the legislative arm under the Federal Constitution,” he said.

 YWP chief legal officer Mohd Fadzil Ab Hamid reportedly said the foundation is considering to take legal action against Wong over his statement issued on November 17 on behalf of the PAC following the completion of its probe into 97 land deals by DBKL since 2011.

PAC’s findings found a conflict of interest in the management of YWP and had recommended that the foundation be adopted as a statutory body.

Wong also said there were dangers of abuse of power as the Federal Territories Minister and Kuala Lumpur Mayor held the posts of chairman and trustees in YWP, which had land dealings with DBKL.

Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa has since denied these claims.

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Annuar said he planned to seek legal action against those who had implicated him in the sale of 42 plots of land by the City Hall (DBKL) since March.

Annuar said the allegation, made by Cheras parliamentarian Tan Kok Wai was slanderous.

He also dismissed the allegation, pointing out that he had only been appointed to the post eight months ago.

Annuar said Tan’s statement had triggeried confusion and criticism against him by the public.

“I want to stress that until today, there is not even one application that has reached me regarding the sale of assets or land owned by the City Hall.

“It is disappointing...this should have been raised in the Dewan Rakyat as I would have easily given an answer or explanation.

“But since it was said outside of Parliament, I have instructed my lawyers to proceed with legal action,” he said.

On Tuesday, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Wong said there were 97 purportedly dubious land deals under the City Hall.

He said these were the results of a lack of clear standard operating procedure (SOP) for the sale and disposal of land assets since 2011.

Based on the PAC proceeding, the method of resolving the 97 land sale transactions belonging to DBKL sold since 2011 does not refer to any SOP and the process was too loose, prone to abuse of power and did little to protect the interests of DBKL and Kuala Lumpur residents.

It was learnt that City Hall as of now had published three notices to change the 2020 KL City Plan, with the latest one involving 33 plots of land while two notices before this, each covering three and six plots, respectively.