A former senior Transport Ministry official testified that he had not received any complaint that the sales and purchase agreement (SPA) on the purchase of a 405ha piece of land in Pulau Indah for the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project was not according to the valuation by the Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH).
Its former planning division deputy secretary-general Abdul Rahman Noor, 63, who retired in March 2004, said this when cross-examined by Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik's counsel Wong Kian Kheong yesterday.
Referring to the SPA, signed between Port Klang Authority (PKA) and Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) on Nov 12, 2002, Wong asked Abdul Rahman if he had received any complaint from the Cabinet, Finance Ministry or JPPH, that it had not abided with the valuation.
Abdul Rahman replied that up till his retirement, he had not.
Wong: Do you know if the SPA is still in effect up till today?
Abdul Rahman: Yes (it is).
Wong: Up till today, do you know if the PKA had terminated the SPA?
Abdul Rahman: Until I retired, no (they had not).
In the SPA, the terms agreed to included the land being purchased at RM25psf with a 7.5% interest rate for 15 years, with a 10% deposit. Payment was to only start in the fifth year of the loan tenure.
Abdul Rahman also told the court that then de facto law minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim had been appointed by the Cabinet on Feb 6, 2002, to see if the land should be obtained via a direct purchase from KDSB, or via land acquisition.
After looking into the matter, Dr Rais had agreed that the land should be obtained via direct purchase.
Tan Sri Ali Abul Hassan, who was then the special economic adviser to the Prime Minister, was also asked to look into the project and that he reported back that the project was economically viable via a purchase.
Dr Ling has claimed trial to an amended principal charge of deceiving the Government by not exposing to the Cabinet an additional interest rate of 7.5% annually in the land purchase for the PKFZ project.
He faces two optional charges of cheating the Government by not exposing to the Cabinet facts pertaining to the interest rate, and deceiving it into believing that facts on the land purchase at RM25psf and 7.5% interest were certified and agreed to by the Finance Ministry's Valuation and Property Services Department when he knew that there was no such consent.
He is said to have committed the offences at the Prime Minister's office in Putrajaya between Sept 25 and Nov 6, 2002.
Hearing continues today.
Source : The Star
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