Chua: S’gor govt purchased assets worth RM676mil from Talam Corp
(Malaysian Digest) – MCA Young Professionals Bureau Chief Datuk Chua Tee Yong told a press conference today that the Selangor state government had purchased RM676 million worth of assets from Talam Corp.
“Of these assets they (Selangor government) has sold RM450 million worth of assets to Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad (PNSB), a wholly owned subsidiary of the state government as this amount is disclosed in the PNSB audited accounts of 2010.
“The land sold to PNSB consists of Bukit Beruntung 2 and Bestari Jaya, totaling to RM450 million. These pieces of land were purchased at the original price that the Selangor state government purchased from Talam Corp,” said Chua who is also MP for Labis.
Chua added that, based on the PNSB audited account of 2009, PNSB is a debt-free entity and has cash balance and fixed deposits of RM76 million.
However, Chua said, based on the publically available Form 34 under the Companies Act, 1965, dated May 12 2011, which was lodged with the Registrar of Companies (ROS), PNSB appears to have pledged a lot of its assets to borrow RM230 million from Maybank, whereby the interest cost for the duration of the loan is RM86 million.
“PNSB is now in debt after the acquisition of the Talam assets from the Selangor state government. The usage of the loan of RM230 million would have been used to repay the state government for the purchase of the assets,” said the deputy minister of Agriculture.
“What is the Selangor state government’s plan to enable PNSB to repay the loan of RM316 million (RM230 million plus interest of RM86 million)?” he asked
Chua then demanded for the Selangor government to provide an explanation on why there were no steps taken to help the cash flow of the state entity (PNSB) by disposing the piece of land to private parties instead of burdening a state entity, causing it to be a debt.
“In summary, a debt-free state entity with cash of RM76 million is now having bank borrowings plus interest of RM316 million after the debt recovery exercise,” he added.
When asked about the effort by the Selangor government to appoint five international auditors to look into the matter, Chua said that the state government had promised to present a white paper in 2010.
“Why do they have to wait until MCA exposed this matter to seriously look into it?” he asked.
Last week Chua revealed that the Selangor government had purchased 2,263 acres of land located at Bestari Jaya from Talam at approximately RM181 million (RM80,000 per acre) which was RM42 million above the market value.
On Tuesday, Chua again drew public attention to another purchase in Danau Putra amounting to RM87.7 million on the part of the Selangor government in which 80 percent of the land was submerged underwater.
