Quota, land transfers delay plan

25/09/2007 The Star By ROYCE CHEAH

PETALING JAYA: A RM42mil joint development in Tumpat, Kelantan between the district council and the developer was delayed because only 15% of the property was set aside for non-Malay buyers and appeals to increase the quota were rejected.

“This, however, could have been avoided if the quota had been set even before the project took off,” said the Auditor-General’s report on Kelantan.

The developer’s request to the Tumpat district council to increase the non-Malay quota to 30% was rejected. A subsequent appeal to the Mentri Besar to up the quota to 28% was rejected by the state executive council.

So work had to stop because the developer had to pay back about RM1mil in deposits that were already collected from non-Malays for 55 houses at the Bandar Baru Pasir Pekan development.

The audit found that a full council meeting was not called to have preliminary discussions regarding certain details of the joint development.

“Only the council president, chief whip, building committee chairman, licensing committee chairman, landscaping committee chairman and the council secretary met, and the quota was not one of the issues discussed.”

The project comprises office lots, houses and other amenities.

The report said the other issue not discussed was the land ownership transfers that delayed the project an additional two years.

“After the developer got approval for 47 acres of land from the state executive council, landlords of five acres of the land protested. The sourcing for the additional five acres took an additional two years.”

The audit said this caused hardship to the owners as they had to repay loans despite the property not being ready and that the council also lost out on business licensing and assessments.

As of April 9 this year, the project was near completion.