Thursday August 9, 2012

Zin dares Khalid to tell all

SHAH ALAM: The Selangor state government has been challenged to reveal how the valuation was made in the purchase of 13 plots of land and properties acquired from Talam Corporation Bhd, which are allegedly overpriced.

State Barisan Nasional coordinator Datuk Seri Zin Mohamed said many questions still remained unanswered.

He said that even DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua had conceded that the state government overpaid RM42mil for a piece of leasehold land in Bestari Jaya while the land in Danau Putra, which was sold to the public, was auctioned off at a much lower price.

“Talam is certainly a good business company to be able to sell these worthless pieces of land at a high price and despite this, the Mentri Besar is fond of giving people lessons in doing business.

“It’s time for him to tell the people how he ended up paying so much more for the land if he is so smart,” he said, adding that “Talam-Gate” had become a talking point among people in the state.

Zin said he also expected answers from Pua, who despite having enjoyed putting down his political opponents, was short of concrete replies.

On Aug 3, Zin had said the debt-recovery exercise between Talam Corporation and the Selangor state government, which led to questionable deals worth over RM1bil, should be termed “Talam-Gate”.

Both Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim and Pua, he said, should quickly find developers who were willing to pay more for these plots of land if they were so potentially valuable.

“The Selangor Government has failed to provide evidence and a basis for the alleged valuation by the state, amounting to RM676mil.

“The question of whether the Selangor government has appointed or consulted the state’s valuation department, as it is expected to do so, still remains unanswered.”

Khalid had avoided answering the question but merely said the acquisition of land by the state government was intended for development, from which it stood to gain huge profits.

Khalid had reportedly said “the value of land is less than the value of development. The state has got enough knowledge on what to develop and enough power to approve the development”.

“What is the state valuation on the land and properties? Just answer the question,” Zin asked yesterday.

He said that before the Talam bailout, it was the standard operating procedure for the state government to refer any valuation of land and property to its valuation department.

More News