The Protect Karpal Singh Drive Action Committee calls for a Penang PAC investigation into the RM1 billion Jelutong landfill rehabilitation project.
GEORGE TOWN: The Protect Karpal Singh Drive Action Committee (ProtectKarpal) has lodged a complaint with the Penang Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to investigate whether procurement principles were followed in the RM1 billion Jelutong landfill rehabilitation project.
The group alleged that the original proposal did not contain any reclamation component. The project involves the rehabilitation of a former landfill near Karpal Singh Drive through a joint venture between the Penang government, Penang Development Corporation (PDC) and PLB Engineering Bhd.
The project also includes a proposed coastal reclamation and mixed development component, potentially endangering the Middle Bank, the only seagrass meadow in the Penang Strait.
ProtectKarpal chairman Dr K Ganesh said it is seeking a PAC probe because it does not have access to the full Joint Development Agreement (JDA).
“We are asking the state government to give us the JDA. We don’t have access to it, so now we are asking PAC to probe,” he told theSun.
Ganesh said the group wanted the PAC to determine whether the addition of the reclamation component breached procurement procedures or public tender principles.
The group, he said, submitted the letter to state PAC chairman Fauzi Yusoff, who is also the state opposition leader, outside the Penang state assembly on Wednesday.
ProtectKarpal claimed the revised 2016 tender proposal did not contain coastal reclamation, but the component later appeared in the 2020 JDA before expanding it to 28.3ha in the project’s 2025 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) submission.
According to the group, the JDA signed in February 2020 required an EIA, Traffic Impact Assessment and Social Impact Assessment within 18 months.
However, the project has since received multiple time extensions after failing to secure environmental approval.
The project has become increasingly contentious after the Department of Environment (DOE) reportedly rejected the project’s EIA five times.
Ganesh claims the group has also been unable to obtain the reasons behind the repeated rejections.
He said ProtectKarpal met DOE officers about three weeks ago but was told that the EIA report could not be disclosed.
“They said the EIA report is private and confidential and they can’t disclose the reason for rejection since it is still in the application process.”
Ganesh said the group is now asking the state government to release the rejection letters and the grounds cited by the DOE.
He also said the project fell under a “first schedule” EIA category, which normally does not require public display, but the DOE had initially insisted on one.
“That’s why we got to know the contents of the first EIA submitted.”
On Wednesday, ProtectKarpal announced that it had filed a formal complaint with the Penang PAC over the Jelutong landfill rehabilitation and reclamation project.
In the complaint, the group asked the PAC to investigate how a project which allegedly contained no reclamation component in the original proposal later evolved into a reclamation plan without a fresh public tender exercise.
The group also asked the PAC to obtain the full JDA, all extension-of-time approvals, EIA-related documents and DOE rejection letters.
ProtectKarpal further urged the PAC to investigate repeated extensions of time granted to the project after the failed EIA applications.
On June 24 last year, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow reportedly said no extension would be granted if the project failed to secure environmental approval by Feb 26 this year.
However, on May 8, ProtectKarpal urged the Penang government to reject any request for another extension after the deadline passed.
It said granting further time would contradict Chow’s earlier pledge and called on the state government to publicly explain its position before the matter is discussed by the state executive council on May 20.
