Hilmi admits RM40 million blunder

sun2surf | ....Hilmi, the BN assemblyman for Teluk Bahang, surprised the assembly when he stood up to take responsibility for the "error" which occurred when he was the Religion, Land, Planning and Development Programmes Committee chairman from 1999 to 2004.

He said this when Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Air Putih) was reporting to the assembly about their findings into several land transactions that went awry because of "negligence" and poor decision making, costing total estimated losses of RM124 million to the state.

"I feel responsible because the error happened then," said Hilmi. "An error occurred and the decision was already made."

According to Lim, this particular case may bring losses worth RM40 million while losses from the other cases involving questionable land acquisitions (collectively investigated as they involved the same government officer) amounted to RM84 million.

Lim revealed in his winding-up speech that the previous administration had approved a 10.6 acres (4.3ha) plot to an individual, apparently a quarry operator.

"A plot of land as big as 10.6 acres is too large to be given only to an individual, which should not have happened," he said.

The case was brought to the courts when the state government cancelled the transfer of the land, he said. "Due to this, the state government incurred losses when the court’s decision sided with the concerned individual."

Lim said a negotiation process to settle the case out of court was held. "In the negotiation process, at one stage the concerned individual agreed to receive compensation that was far lower, which was RM1.8 million, but the previous state government did not agree." ... selanjutnya.