Wednesday August 1, 2012

MBPJ discards Local Plan 2 after recent inquiry

By EDWARD R. HENRY
edward@thestar.com.my

PETALING Jaya City Council’s (MBPJ) Audit Unit has completed an internal inquiry into the unauthorised amendments the council’s Planning Department made to the gazetted PJ Local Plan 2 (RTPJ2).

Mayor Datuk Mohamad Roslan Sakiman said the Audit Unit had compiled the findings in a report and submitted it to the state excutive council. All the councillors would also be briefed on the findings.

“For internal administration purposes, the council will discard the RTPJ2 and go back to the state executive-approved plans,” he said after the council’s full board meeting yesterday.

Recently, 18 senior department heads and clerical staff were questioned in an inquiry.

MBPJ Audit Unit and seven councillors had interrogated them to find out reasons for the unauthorised changes the Planning Department had made in August 2011.

Former MBPJ Town Planning Department director Noraini Roslan, senior assistant director Faiwos Abd Hamid and deputy director Zain Azly were also called in for the inquiry.

On July 6, it was reported that Selangor Select Committee on Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) chairman Datuk Teng Chang Khim had said the RTPJ2 was considered defective as it was signed by Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Kalid Ibrahim in his capacity as the Selangor State Planning Committee (SPC) chairman instead of the state executive council chairman.

“Approval of the plan was given by SPC but it should obtain consent of the state exco,” Teng added.

The Selcat hearings on June 28 and Aug 5 revealed that there were three versions of the RTPJ2.

The first version was approved by the state exco, the second version was held by the Selangor Town and Country Planning Department (JPBD) and the third version was with MBPJ.

The state executive council had approved the RTPJ2 in December 2010 but the inquiry revealed that the JBPD made 71 unauthorised changes before gazetting it on Jan 13, 2011.

Also, MBPJ’s Planning Department had made an additional 220 changes to the local plan in August 2011.

These included amendments to the Kelana Jaya PKNS sports centre’s land status, which was changed from recreational to commercial.