Land was transferred to Bank Negara 15 days after purchase

PETALING JAYA: The land that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)bought from the fede­ral government was transferred to the central bank within 15 days.

Hartanah Mampan Sdn Bhd, the special purpose vehicle incorpora­ted by the federal government on Oct 19, 2017, to act as a conduit for the transaction, had four directors.

Among them was former Trea­sury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah, ac­­cor­­ding to a company search. Irwan also sat on the board of BNM.

The activities of Hartanah Mam­pan are listed as real estate and deve­lopment of building projects.

Hartanah Mampan is linked to another company, Actius Terra Global Holdings Sdn Bhd.

According to documents from the land office, the Federal Land Com­mission transferred Lot 41 to Har­tanah Mampan on Dec 14, 2017.

On Dec 29, 2017, about two months after Hartanah Mampan was incorporated, Lot 41 was transferred to BNM.

BNM paid RM2.066bil for the land known as Lot 41, according to a document viewed by The Star.

Two documents said the acreage was 272,815sq m or 67.41 acres.

A BNM release on Jan 4 this year said the acquisition was 55.79 acres. This translates to more than RM800 per sq ft.

Private valuer Suleiman & Co va­­lued the land. It declined to comment on the basis of its valuation.

It is not known whether the go­­vernment valuers’ from the Valua­tion and Property Services Depart­ment were involved or a second opinion was sought, considering that the size of the deal was RM2.066bil.

According to a document from the Land Office, the usage of the land is stated as “none”, meaning that Lot 41 is unconverted land.

For land to be used for development purposes, it has to be converted. Since BNM planned to build training institutions on Lot 41, it has to convert the land to institution use.

“Therefore, to pay over RM2.066bil for unconverted land is very high. Why did BNM pay such a high price for the land?” sources asked.

They said it was possible for the premium on conversion to be waived but that was a separate issue.