Committee to hear details of govt land fraud

SHAH ALAM: A high-powered committee is expected to hear how fraudulent land transfers and re-zoning had been perpetrated in Selangor by some crooked government officials.
The manoeuvring, fraud, deception and money changing hands are expected to be laid bare at a hearing of the Select Committee on Local Councils.
Among the evidence to be presented are instances where amendments had been added to the Local Plan by the Planning Department of certain councils without the approval of the state executive council.
There will also be reference to specific instances where plot ratios and density had been increased arbitrarily.
The state government has subpoenaed several expert witnesses to testify. Sources said that it will be a "no-holds barred" session with episodes – complete with the names of those involved – where such unlawful and dishonest activities had been carried out.
The hearing, to be chaired by the executive councillor in charge of local authorities, Dr Idris Ahmad, is a follow-up of a previous Special Select Committee on Competence, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) hearing held two years ago.
Among issues that were brought to the fore was that the Petaling Jaya Local Plan had been amended unlawfully twice, with some 220 unauthorised and illegal amendments involving 40 plots of land, including the re-zoning of the PKNS field in Kelana Jaya.
The hearing accepted that most of the amendments had been done in complete violation of the law and hidden from the PJ councillors, who were "fed a steady diet of lies" at every meeting of the council's one-stop centre which scrutinises applications for development.
That hearing described these activities as "reckless, unprofessional and incompetent" but no action was taken against the culprits.
Thursday's meeting is expected to expose more instances where local council officials had taken it upon themselves to re-zone large tracts of land without following proper procedures, including a compulsory public hearing.
"In some instances, the officials made the changes but gave the impression to the state executive council that all provisions and requirements of the various related laws have been met.
"It was as if they were children in a drawing class with coloured pencils. They re-coloured areas marked in green for recreational land to other colours to denote that the changes had been made," said a local council source.
At the previous hearing, two different versions of the Local Plan emerged and officials who testified were at a loss when asked which was the "legitimate" one.
However, state government sources told theSun Wednesday that it is "very likely that a third version of the plan will surface at the hearing.
"The third plan was uncovered by some councillors when they were scrutinizing applications for development earlier this year," the source said.
Unlike the previous hearing which was open to the public, Wednesday's meeting is a closed-door session.
In a text-message, Speaker Hannah Yeoh said: "I have checked all the provisions of our standing orders. Apologies you won't be able to attend the closed-door hearing unless your are summoned as a witness. The select committee for local councils has no power to do a public hearing and there is also a clause preventing premature publication of evidence. Their role is to report to the House."