No. 5018 PP 2644/12/2010 (025832)
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tolow-costhousingsaga
Twist
BY R. NADESWARAN AND
TERENCE FERNANDEZ
sreports@thesundaily.com
P
ETALING JAYA:
A new twist to the
saga of low-cost units being sold to
ineligible buyers has emerged.
The so-called circular to Petaling
Jaya City Council (MBPJ) staff
informing themof the availability of low-cost
units irrespective of eligibilitywas issued by
the Planning Department, and not the
president’s or mayor’s office, it is learnt.
It has also emerged that such a circular or
policywas never presented for endorsement
by the full board of the council as required by
law and convention.
While letters fromplanning director
SharipahMarhaini Syed Ali to deputymayor
PuasaMd. Taib, and Puasa’s own explanation
to the State Special Committee on Local
Councils indicated that the purchases of low-
cost flats were sanctioned by the state
government and then council president Datuk
Emran Kadir, there is no evidence to date to
that effect.
“What has been determined is that the
policy on allocation of houses to council staff,
including department heads and directors,
came from the Planning Department,” said a
source.
In a letter to Puasa on Feb 4 this year,
Sharipah said the council president had in 2001
asked developers whowere not involved in the
squatter relocation exercise to allocate units
for council staff.
“Details of the availability of the houses
were openly disseminated to staff via e-mail,”
Sharipahwrote.
She also said the Sri Jati flats, where she
owns a unit, was not meant for squatter
relocation, although a year earlier, in a note to
the State Housing and Property Board, she had
indicated that squatters fromKampung
Tropicana and Kampung Lembahwould be
moved there.
Puasa, in hisMarch 8, 2010memo to the
state government, said the then executive
councillor for housing (DatukMohdMokhtar
AhmadDahlan) and then council president
(Emran) had, in 2001, decreed that low-cost
houses could be opened to council staff as an
incentive.
BothMohdMokhtar and Emran have said
they could not remember issuing such
directives, and the present state administration
has said that bending the rules on low-cost
home ownershipwas never sanctioned by the
executive council.
FormerMBPJ councillor V. Subramanian
(
pix
) said that the allocation of low-cost units
to staff was never endorsed by the full board.
“We never approved it at council level. You
can check the full boardminutes,”
Subramaniam, who served between 2000 and
2008, said.
He said the decision to allocate 10% of the
Sri Jati flats in Ara Damansara to council staff
never landed on the councillors’ desks.
However, he pointed the finger back at
Emran, saying the policy allowing 500 staff to
buy low-cost homes was introduced during
Emran’s tenure when local councils took over
the implementation of squatter relocation
programmes from the state.
Subramaniam said the state executive
council never endorsed this policy. “But, at that
time, the way things were done, the word of
one individual, be it thementri besar or exco
for housing, became law,” he said.
He said he had onmany occasions brought
up thematter at full boardmeetings.
“Check themeetingminutes, they should
have recordedmy
objections to the
policy,” he
said.
“Many
council staff,
including
heads of
departments
who do not
deserve the
units, were
given homes.”
> ‘Policy on allocationof houses came fromPlanning
Department andnot offices of council president ormayor’
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