Khalid and Azmin to testify at Selcat inquiry

Coming clean: Azmin (right) and Khalid will be called to give their accounts at the hearing on March 25 and 26.

SHAH ALAM: Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim and Azmin Ali will be called to testify before the state’s Select Com-mittee on Competency, Accoun­tability and Transparency over the removal of the Bukit Antara­bangsa assemblyman from the board of the Selangor State Development Cor­poration (PKNS).

The hearing will be held on March 25 and March 26, Selcat chairman Hannah Yeoh told a press conference here yesterday.

The inquiry will be two days after the Kajang by-election, which will be contested by PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in what is believed to be a bid to propel him into the Mentri Besar’s office, replacing Khalid.

Sources said Khalid may resign should Anwar win the polls and the hearing would serve the purpose of reinstating Azmin, who is PKR deputy president, on the PKNS board.

Azmin was removed on Dec 4 last year, with the Mentri Besar’s office saying later that then general manager Othman Omar was behind the sacking.

Following Azmin’s removal, 22 contract staff of PKNS Holdings were dismissed. Sources alleged that they had found their way into the company through Azmin’s recommendations.

Yeoh said there were many versions to Azmin’s case.

“So, we would look at his position on the board and what the actual story is,” she said, adding that Azmin, who is a Selcat member, would be testifying as a witness.

Yeoh said the termination of the 22 contract staff of PKNS Holdings and other issues relevant to PKNS would also be brought up at the hearing.

Earlier, she chaired a public inquiry on flood mitigation work carried out by the state Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID).

During the hearing, Kota Raja MP Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud and Sri Muda assemblyman Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei spoke of their frustrations in countering flooding in their constituencies.

The inquiry found the state DID had allegedly not used its annual allocation and started work, including on flood mitigation, only in the last three months of the year.

State DID director Abdul Qahar Osman said it took at least 10 months to plan a project due to a shortage of professional staff, such as engineers.