‘PKR sought US$10m kickback from developer’
Blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin alleges that a senior PKR leader solicited US$10 million in kickback from a developer for the party’s election coffers.
(Free Malaysia Today) – A senior PKR leader asked for US$10 million as election funding from a company which had sought the leader’s assistance in moving its stalled project in Selangor, alleged blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK).
The company was referred to the PKR leader, also a parliamentarian, by a PKR head from Sarawak because the former was supposedly close to Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim.
However after approaching the leader, the company was told to donate US$10 million to PKR as ‘election funds’. The company was also told to seek RM70 million in compensation from the state government over losses suffered from its already completed project in Selayang, and for abandoning Phases 2 and 3 of the project.
The company was told that it should abandon its yet-to-be completed project “because the land is going to be given to a PKR leader to take over”, claimed the popular blogger in his latest posting in Malaysia-Today.
He said that the company – Azam dan Azan Sdn Bhd (AASB) – was told to be contented with the RM70 million ‘compensation’ they will receive, minus the US$10 million ‘donation’.
“Hence, accept the RM70 million ‘compensation’, pay the US$10 million ‘donation’, forgo phases two and three so that the PKR leader can take over, or else receive nothing and make a loss.
“Once AASB receives the RM70 million from the state, they are to pay the US$10 million donation as agreed,” wrote RPK.
He said that AASB was first introduced to another PKR leader by the Sarawak PKR leader before the matter was eventually passed on the senior PKR leader.
Raja Petra had named all the PKR leaders who were involved in the matter but did not disclose the name of the leader who was eyeing the land which belonged to AASB.
The AASB project
Documents posted on Malaysia-Today showed that the deal entered by AASB with the Selangor government in 1997 involved the relocation of the existing Selayang market plus a workshop and a multipurpose office owned by Majlis Perbandaran Selayang (MPS).
AASB and the government had signed Supplementary Agreements in 1998, 1999 and 2001.
The project was to be implemented in three phases. The first phase comprised of a block of shops, apartments and a modern market with a 30-year concession for the developer (AASB).
The second phase was earmarked for a 10-storey apartment block, while the third phase was a development of 23 units of shoplots adjacent to the said land.
RPK said that the first phase was completed in 2009 but the second phase could not take off following the refusal of hawkers sited there to move out.
He said that the hawkers were to be relocated by the state agency to the newly constructed market but it failed to materialise because the rental sought by AASB was expensive.
The failure to remove the hawkers caused delays to start the Phase 2 of the project, and this was compounded by Selangor’s decision to reject alternative options submitted by AASB.
RPK said that the construction cost for the market was RM18 million and based on a 30-year concession, AASB could only recoup around RM9 million at the most.
This loss was supposed to have been absorbed in the next phases of development, he added.
