Parti Hijau Malaysia joins call for probe into RM700mil S'gor maritime gateway project

(From left) Parti Hijau Malaysia (PHM) secretary-general Abdul Razak, president Zabri Mokhtar, committee member Muaz Khalilullah Muhammad Ramlee speaking with a representative from the Selangor State Legislative Assembly speaker's office outside the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Building in Shah Alam on Monday (March 6).

SHAH ALAM: A memorandum calling for a public hearing on the award of a RM700mil mega project via direct negotiation has been handed over to Selangor State Legislative Assembly speaker Ng Suee Lim.

Parti Hijau Malaysia (PHM) president Zabri Mokhtar and secretary-general Abdul Razak Ismail handed over the memorandum to the Speaker's representatives on Monday (March 6) outside the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Building.

Abdul Razak said PHM had requested for Ng who is also chairman of Special Select Committee On Competence, Accountability And Transparency (Selcat) to look into issues surrounding the award of the RM700mil Selangor maritime gateway.

“The project was awarded through direct negotiations and not by open tender. Furthermore, the project was awarded to the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) company Landasan Lumayan Berjaya Sdn Bhd (LLB) which lists Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari and state exco member Izham Hashim as company directors.

“We are doubtful of the project, as to whether it really aims to dredge, widen and deepen the Klang river as part of the flood mitigation efforts, as we have been told that the project will also involve housing projects on both sides of the river involving some 202.34ha of land with a gross development value of RM10bil.

“We also question why the company was given a RM117mil land premium exemption, and why the state government agreed to take on up to RM54mil in debt on behalf of the company,” said Abdul Razak.

He added that there was little information available for the public about the project.

“We don’t have much details on the scope of the project, like how wide and deep the widening will be, as well as other factors such as the development and whether it will actually benefit the people of Selangor.

“The interests of Selangorians could even be compromised as we have been told that the state is the minority shareholder in the joint venture at 45% against 55%.”

PHM also applied for information from the state government under the Freedom of Information (State of Selangor) Enactment 2011.

“We submitted a list of questions which will hopefully speed up the process of finding out these facts,” said Abdul Razak.

“Among our seven questions are to clarify the Terms of Reference of the project, as well as whether the 98 companies which pitched for the project and were subsequently rejected were offered the same Terms of Reference as the one awarded to the SPV company.

“We also intend to find out the allowances, remuneration as well as perks that were received by the Mentri Besar and exco members to date.

Previously, Amirudin's press secretary Jay Jay Denis said that the project did not involve any state funds.

He was quoted as saying LLB had raised funds through a private finance initiative (PFI) and is a subsidiary company under Mentri Besar Selangor Incorporated (MBI).

"He (Amirudin) is a director of the company by virtue of the project being under MBI," he said when contacted.