Freedom of information

 

Ex- Sabah ministers may be grilled.

The above is the front page headline in today’s Daily Express. The following is a statement that caught my eye.

‘Daily Express learnt that they (ex-ministers) can expect to be grilled into what they knew but failed to act or what role they may have even played or gained from the alleged conspiracy to defraud Sabahans of millions of ringgit…’

This then made me think about a statement the spokesman of LPPB made. He said, ‘This development (Vistana Heights) was supervised by engineers and approved by management who have retired.’

 

If ex-ministers can be grilled why not the engineers and management staff of LPPB who approved the project and have retired?

What about the current development manager and general manager of LPPB who refuse to acknowledge emails let alone respond to them? Are they not behaving exactly like the ‘sultans’ referred to by Datuk Hajiji in his speech recently?

I refer to another article in the papers dated 17.1.2023 by Mr. Roger Chin:

On another development, Chin said events in Malaysia in the past year has revealed the necessity for a Freedom of Information Act to finally be enacted to allow democratic shoots to grow.

Access to information helps the public make public authorities accountable for their actions and allows public debate to be better informed and more productive and will assist in public interest litigation. Access to official information can also improve public confidence and trust if government and public sector bodies are seen to be ‘open’.

He said Freedom of Information is fundamentally a right given to the people to request information from the government…

The development manager and general manager of LPPB refuse to answer simple questions. I am still not clear on what the role of LPPB is in the Vistana Heights project. LPPB has not signed the S&P Agreement as stipulated in the Housing Development Enactment signed by Datuk Hajiji. In the original Development Plan, they have signed as land owner but not in the amended development plan.

LPPB website states that LPPB may be sued by the public for wrong doing. LPPB was sued by residents of Austral Park (a project where I was the director of the developer company).

Here is an extract from the newspaper article that appeared in 2015.

‘The Austral Park residents are claiming that LPPB breached the sale and purchase agreements by entering into joint venture agreements with developers to develop the open spaces which was designated as housing development's open space in the original development plan.’

In the case of Vistana Heights in addition to many other breaches the developer has breached the S&P agreement by taking over open space to build a car park for one of the residents without the consent of the owners as stipulated in the S&P Agreement.

With the help of the architect and surveyor the developer has fraudulently prepared drawings to obtain Occupancy Certificates. This fraud must have been known by DBKK officers who approved the project. This crime must be dealt with.  

The former director of DBKK who approved the amended development plan who is now in Kementerian Kerajaan Tempatan dan Perumahan has promised to organize a meeting with the relevant parties and me. I hope the buck stops here.

Again the Chinese saying rears its head – xiao dong bu bu da dong chi ku.

 ‘小洞不补大洞吃苦’ A small hole not plugged will make you suffer a big hole (idiom); a stitch in time saves nine.