Rep: Flaw in system cause of forgery
06/04/2007 The Star

HAH FOONG LIAN at Perak State Assembly on Thursday.

IPOH: The new computerised land registration system is not secure because all land offices in the country use the same personal identification number (PIN) to access the system, an assemblyman claimed.

Ngeh Koo Ham (DAP – Sitiawan) said the land office did not have proper control over the system, which was set up by the Economic Planning Unit, and this had led to problems of forged land titles.

“I have come across six genuine cases of landowners who discovered fake titles that had been issued for their plots of land,” he said, in his motion of thanks when debating the royal address at the fourth session of the 11th State Assembly here yesterday.

The latest cases, he said, involved a 141ha plot and a 51ha plot, for which the landowners had the titles but their names had been changed.

“If the state does not resolve the matter, foreign investors would not want to invest in the state because the grants could be changed and the land could be sold to another person,” he said.

“It is disappointing that Bank Negara is taking such a long time to rectify the problem,” said Ngeh.

However, Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN – Kampung Gajah) said Ngeh was exaggerating.

“It is just a problem of one or two individuals, not the entire administration.”