‘White Paper must address all concerns’

KUALA LUMPUR: The White Paper on the Selangor Government's debt recovery exercise involving Talam Corporation must address all allegations or it will become just another “political whitewash”, says the MCA.

Its Young Professionals Bureau chief Datuk Chua Tee Yong said he hoped the White Paper would not turn out to be like the KPMG audit report, which was a disappointment as it raised more questions than answers.

“If it is just like the KPMG report, whereby it does not answer any of the allegations, it will just become a political White Paper,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby here yesterday.

It was reported that Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim was expected to table the White Paper at a state assembly meeting on Nov 19.

On July 3, Chua had challenged the Selangor Government to explain how its exercise to recover a RM392mil debt from Talam ended in questionable deals worth over RM1bil.

The state government is said to have obtained a grant of RM392mil and acquired additional assets worth RM284mil from Talam bringing the total acquisition to RM676mil.

This RM676mil purchase of assets was said to be part of the RM1bil in deals being questioned.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had conducted a preliminary investigation into the allegations.

Chua, who is also the Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister, questioned the reason for the White Paper to be tabled late at the assembly meeting.

“If there is no problem in any of the transactions, why is it taking so long? Is there a cover-up by the state government?” he said, adding that among the issues which must be addressed in the White Paper was the reason for the Bukit Beruntung land to be acquired at such a high price.

“It must also address why there is a discount given while some of the assets selected are with low commercial value,” he said, adding that it must also explain how the state government had raised funds to allegedly pay Talam's bankers RM266mil.

He added that with so many questions left unanswered, it was not unreasonable for the rakyat to suspect that there might be something amiss.

“It must be able to explain whether all the valuations of the assets acquired had followed the standard of the Valuation and Property Services Department,” he said。

Source： The Star
Reference: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/10/12/nation/12159067&sec=nation