Umno stalwarts named in lopsided deals

 

SHAH ALAM: Top politicians including former Agriculture Minister Tan Sri Sanusi Junid and former Executive Council member Datuk Abdul Rahman Palil were directors of companies involved in lopsided projects in Selangor, according to  declassified documents marked secret by the previous administration.

The companies entered into joint venture projects with the Selangor Agriculture Development Corporation that  brought little benefit to the people and and even less revenue to the state.

The documents showed former Mentri Besar Dr Khir Toyo claiming that the reforestation projects would bring in a revenue of RM800 million within 20 years,  but  so far  the projects have contributed barely RM500,000 to the government coffers.

The projects were supposedly initiated to find a balance between physical development and the environment in Selangor.

Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim (picture), who used provisions under the Officials Secret Act to declassify the documents,  said they showed a pattern in which joint-venture projects were awarded  to the same people, albeit  in different companies.

He said some of the projects were given to dormant companies which did not have the expertise to carry out reforestation. Furthermore, they were awarded without any tenders called.

Four joint venture projects mentioned in the documents were signed between 2001 and 2007 and involved almost 11,000 hectares at the forest reserves in Bukit Tarek, Rantau Panjang, Sungai Jeloh and Bukit Belata.

The parcels of land were leased to the companies for between 50 and 60 years for several projects, including reforesting the areas with commercial trees such as teak, sentang and rubber.

Nothing was done to stop the joint ventures although several parties had raised concerns over the questionable deals.

Khalid said Selangor would have been better off without the one-sided reforestation projects, which he described as a “huge” loss to to taxpayers.

He remarked that the showed why a Freedom of Information law was important to prevent misuse of power by politicians.