SHAH ALAM: A legal firm has been identified as one of the entities involved in illegal land transfers in Selangor, the State Assembly was told.
Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said the legal firm is said to be directly involved based on their areas of expertise, including completing land transactions.
"It is not the work of one person. They have links and connections with several departments and other institutions.
"So far, a legal firm and several officers from the district and land office have been found to be involved. That's how much we know now," he said in reply to Danial Al-Rashid Haron Aminar Rashid (PH-Batu Tiga) during Question Time.
Danial had asked if there are other entities involved after Selangor Land and Mines Office director Datuk Dr Yusri Zakariah made a disclosure last month, confirming that seven staff members from the Klang District and Land Office were among 17 civil servants arrested over illegal land transfer activities in the state.
Elaborating further, Amirudin said compensation for landowners involved would be examined on a case-by-case basis because it involves a large amount and the state government would look for replacement land with the agreement of all parties.
"Not just the landowners, the state government was also affected by the (illegal land transfers) because we had to spend a huge amount of money to address it," he said.
Amirudin also said the state government is reviewing weaknesses or shortcomings during the transition from the manual to electronic system for land transfer to avoid overlapping development and unclear ownership, which had a negative impact on land owners and the state government.
He said the state government had identified at least three illegal land transfer cases and some of the officers involved had died or retired from public service.
"What we can do is file a police report and the police will investigate. If the officer is still there, we will transfer him to another place or at least impose some restrictions with regulations and suspension," he said.
Amirudin said that apart from disciplinary action, a session with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and an integrity improvement programme were also being implemented to prevent corruption and misappropriation in public service.
"The Public Service Department is also implementing job rotation for counter service staff so that no officer would be in one place for too long to make it possible for unwanted incidents (misappropriation) to occur," he said.
He added that the state government had also ordered each District and Land Office to conduct audits and inspections to ensure that the incident of illegal land transfer does not happen again. – Bernama
