The heat is on Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
Just yesterday, Dato’ Huan Cheng Guan led members of the Penang People’s Association to lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over the lease of a piece of government land in Peel Avenue to a private hospital.
The report was lodged by members of the non-governmental organization (NGO) at the MACC office in Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah.
Acting in his capacity as chairman of the NGO, Huan stressed that Guan Eng failed to come up with the sale and purchase agreement (S&P) of the land deal despite being given a week to do so.
“An MACC report was lodged because we feel the deal should have been done through open tender process, which was frequently stressed by the Penang state administration, instead of direct negotiation,” said Huan, who is also the president of Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM).
Huan was reported to have said that he was “curious, disappointed and shocked” upon learning the land was leased in a hush-hush manner.
The TTF team was made to understand that the land deal involved the leasing of a 2.6ha plot in Peel Avenue for 99 years to Penang’s Island Hospital for the construction of a medical facility.
According to a report published by The Star today, the hospital had paid RM30 million for the land and was given two years to pay the remaining RM126 million pending an application for licencing.
In a news alert published by TTF earlier today (READ HERE), Guan Eng was quoted as saying the sale of the state-owned land was not at his sole discretion.
The Chief Minister was responding to a claim by Jason Loo, the acting youth chief of Gerakan, who alleged that the decision to sell the plot was a “one-man show.”
“Penang Gerakan claimed it was a one-man decision and that it meant Penang is led by a dictatorship, these are all fitnah and lies,” said the embattled state leader who stands accused of engaging in a bungalow-for-land scam deal.
