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(Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): DAP Selangor calls on the Selangor Mentri Besar, Datuk Seri Khir Toyo to respond to urgent issues raised in the two Auditor-General Report on Selangor State Government and its agencies. The Auditor-General (AG) had on Tuesday released two reports on the state government. The first report is the AG report on the State Government Financial Account in 2006 and the second report is the AG’s audit report on 4 selected activities carried out by various state government agencies. Both reports exposed numbers of outrages malpractices by the state government/state government agencies/local authorities which should be viewed as signs of worsening good governance in Selangor, which Menteri Besar Khir Toyo has unilaterally announced it to be a “developed state”, which is a soulless “developed state”. Four major projects have been audited by the State Government are as follows:
In the first project, the State Government has agreed to approve and transfer 273 acres government land in Kampung Air Kuning, Bukit Cerakah to Syarikat Ecoasli Development Sdn. Bhd. In return, the developer is required to return RM18.23 million to the Orang Asli community in Kampung Air Kuning in the forms of 113 residential units, 2 units of shop/office and convenient store. Besides that, RM6.95 million will be distributed in the forms of investments in Amanah Saham Bumiputera, compensation to the residents and education, while the government will be getting 160 unit low cost flats at RM14.4 million. The implementation of the project was not ideal as there were several terms in the contract not followed, resulting that the Orang Asli community and the State Government only receiving 24.3% of the promised items while no action is taken against the developer for violating the contractual terms. The second project is the construction of a road from Sekinchan to Ulu Bernam and it was divided into two projects, i.e. Jalan Cross Ban 4 Project (from Sekinchan to Kampung Parit 4, Sungai Haji Dorani) and Jalan B44 Project (from Kampung Parit, Sungai Haji Dorani to Ulu Bernam), which are 20.5km and 9.4km in length. Original cost for Jalan Cross Ban 4 Project was RM92.5 million and the final cost was RM118.3 million after a variation order of RM25.8 million, meaning that the government spent averagely RM5.8 million to build one kilometer of the road. The project was chosen by AG due to its high cost. AG report also pointed out that the awarding of the contracts were not done under tender system but direct negotiation by PWD after obtaining approval from State Financial Office without the information of the State Procurement Board as direct negotiation can only be conducted when the project value worth under RM200,000, while projects awarded under direct negotiation must be deemed as urgently necessary which was not in these two cases. Checks conducted by the AG also provided alternative pricing for the two projects as follows which are much lower than the price offered by PWD:
As for the third projects, we are regret that the most of the IT equipments in the State Public Libraries are all under poor condition when there are no internet connections and most of the IT equipment are all malfunctioned. In the fourth project, the AG exposed that a contractor undertaking the RM10 million marine park project received an unexpected "bonus" of RM19.98 million. The auditor-general said another anomaly in the project at Kampung Sg Haji Dorani was that the contractor, Pembinaan Merak Sdn Bhd, did not go through a tender process. Five years ago, the state secretariat submitted a letter to the Sabak Bernam District Council president, approving RM10 million for the project from the state government’s special fund. From the audit, the AG found that the offer letter issued contained the figure RM29.98 million and not RM10 million. State Financial Status: We are specifically concerned about the long outstanding default payment to be paid back by the State Government to the Federal Government. The total debt to date is RM1.04 billion and it was shocking that the State Government is delaying in clearing the debt with the Federal Government since year 2002. Simultaneously, several state government agencies and state government linked companies are also defaulting their debts to the state government and the amount has reached RM447.03 last year. The Role of State Legislalative Hall Public Account Committee After AG has concluded its report, various state government agencies concerned should prepare a formal reply to the State Treasury in which the State Treasury will prepare a memorandum to be tabled together with the AG report in the State Legislative Assembly Hall soonest possible. Once it is tabled on the State Legilsative Assembly Hall, the State Public Account Committee (PAC) will then scrutinize, study and examine the report and justify whether it is necessary to summon certain department to appear before the PAC and testify. It was again another disappointing episode when the State PAC only finished the audit report in 2004 and the 2005 report is still pending as the State Assembly Hall only convened 5 days a year. We call on the Selangor Mentri Besar, Datuk Seri Khir Toyo to respond to urgent issues raised in the two Auditor-General Report on Selangor State Government and its agencies and do not wait until the Auditor-General report tabled in the State Legislative Assembly Hall much later this year.
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