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PETALING JAYA: An anti-bribery group says there is a clear conflict of interest for Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa to continue to lead Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan (YWP), warning that it can lead to an abuse of power.
The Center to Combat Corruption and Chronism (C4) said that Annuar had the authority to override the mayor of Kuala Lumpur on planning matters, as provided in the Federal Territory (Planning) Act 1982.
“(Annuar) is the president of a private landowner, through YWP, while at the same time having the power to have the government make decisions in favor of that same private landowner,” said C4 CEO Cynthia Gabriel, it’s a statement.
“Clearly, this is a conflict of interest and possible abuse of power issue as seen in the past.
“YWP’s alleged involvement in some of the land transactions is of great concern because YWP, being a limited liability company, is not subject to any federal or government audit.
“Therefore, there is no transparency or accountability mechanism to detect fraud and / or conflicts of interest in transactions involving government land.”
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recently revealed that 97 Kuala Lumpur City Council (DBKL) land transactions were conducted without reference to any SOPs since 2011, and that the process was deemed too lax and exposed to abuse of power. .
PAC also said that the YWP administration, which participated in the DBKL land purchase, was exposed to a conflict of interest as the minister of federal territories and the mayor of Kuala Lumpur were the president of the foundation and members of the board of trustees, respectively.
YWP, which is a company registered under the Companies Act of 1965, is not supervised by any authority, including the National Audit Department.
C4 also pointed its guns at former FT Minister Khalid Samad for failing to shed light and providing clearer explanations on the land deals, adding that it had estimated them to be worth around RM4.28 billion.
“The transactions were carried out under the supervision of the former minister of federal territories Tengku Adnan Mansor. Despite the change of government, details were kept secret and kept out of the public eye.
“Khalid did not address, among other issues, how the land deals became dubious in the first place, why standard operating procedures were not followed and the kinds of reforms he intended to take as preventive measures,” he said.
C4 called for a report of the 2018 ad hoc working group on land deals to be debated in Parliament, adding that the report’s findings had not been released until now.
He also urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to provide details on previous investigations into land transactions and to relaunch investigations, particularly those involving YWP.
