‘LAND SWAP REPORTS OUT THIS WEEK’
Reports to be released to the public in stages on ministry’s official website
THE Defence Ministry will release reports on the controversial land swap deals to the public this week.
In a statement, the ministry said the reports would be released in stages and accessible from the ministry’s official website.
“The ministry has lodged two reports with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for investigations and to take appropriate action.
“The ministry views seriously the committee’s findings, censures and recommendations presented by the investigating committee.”
The reports were prepared by the Governance, Procurement and Finance Investigating Committee, with reports on the Hutan Melintang, Batu Cantonment, and Paloh/Kinrara camps already released on Monday.
Reports on the Sungai Buloh, Sungai Besi and Batu Pahat camps were released yesterday.
The remaining reports will be released over the next two days. They include reports on the 502 Territorial Army transit camp, and the Terendak and Brinchang camps.
Last Thursday, Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu said more than RM500 million
in losses were incurred from 13 of the 16 land swap deals carried out under the previous Barisan Nasional government.
It was reported that the land swaps were done at various military camps before the 14th General Election on May 9 last year.
Investigators had found that there were losses in excess of RM500 million over 16 land swap projects involving 1,286ha of the ministry’s land, worth RM4.756 billion and involving development costs of RM4.886 billion.
Meanwhile, a summary of the investigation report revealed that the previous administration prioritised political consideration over the government’s interests in the land swap projects.
“The investigating committee found that there was a clear involvement of the (previous) prime minister and defence minister in most of the land swap cases (13 out of the 16 cases),” said the report.
It said checks with the Election Commission confirmed that several developments of army camps were done for political interests, specifically for transferring voters for GE14, and not for any military strategy reasons.
“For the Paloh camp, a memo from the (former) defence minister’s political secretary clearly showed that priority was given for its development for political interest in the Sembrong parliamentary constituency, which led to a letter being issued to a company to buy the land and to begin construction without its contract being signed first.”
This point was among 11 findings of the investigating committee. Among the other findings were:
WEAK land swap project planning; THE acquirement process did not guarantee value for money and was devoid of due diligence; INCONSISTENT criteria for land swap valuation; INCONSISTENT valuation of land swap; DEVELOPMENT projects results did not fulfil the ministry’s needs; PROJECT prerequisites did not fulfil government’s interests; WEAK management of contracts; LAND swaps did not adhere to regulations and standard operating procedures; FEDERAL agencies’ opinions were ignored; and,
CABINET had made decisions with limited/inaccurate information.
The committee made recommendations which included renegotiation of land swap project at the Kinrara camp, discontinuing the land swap projects in the armed forces’ quarters land on Jalan Kuching and using open tenders for other land swap projects.
It recommended for investigations to be conducted on officers who broke the rules and went against the standard operating procedures, and to also create or update the Defence Ministry’s land inventories based on location and current value.