PETALING JAYA: MCA Young Professionals Bureau chief Datuk Chua Tee Yong has slammed the Selangor government for refusing to disclose details of land transactions which formed part of Talam Corporation Bhd’s debt recovery exercise.

He said under the Freedom of Information Act supposedly practised and upheld by the state government, land transactions were eligible for disclosures.

“So, why are they so afraid of disclosing them for public interest? Don’t divert attention. The majority of the plots of land have not been transferred to the rightful owners,” he told reporters yesterday.

Chua was responding to a recent statement by Selangor exco member Teresa Kok on the land deals, which he said “did not disclose any pertinent information”.

Kok had said that the Selangor government acquired three pieces of land in Danau Putra from Talam at RM15 per sq ft as part of a global debt settlement.

Two pieces of land were sold while one was auctioned off by Bangkok Bank at RM5.20 per sq ft.

In recent months, Chua, who is also the Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister, had raised questions pertaining to the exercise, which he said was to recover RM392mil in debts from Talam but had instead ended in deals worth over RM1bil.

The state government is said to have acquired land worth RM392mil and bought additional assets for RM248mil from Talam, bringing the total acquisition to RM676mil.

The RM676mil is part of the RM1bil in questionable deals.

Yesterday, describing the exercise as “the mother of all lies”, Chua showed a letter dated July 14, 2009 to prove that the state government was “lying” and “misleading the public” when it claimed that all debts had been hidden and no state subsidiary had attempted to recover the debts from Talam.

The letter, signed by Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, had stated that a Talam Task Force Committee, headed by then Selangor Development Corporation (PKNS) deputy corporate affairs and accounting manager Datin Paduka Low Siew Moi, would negotiate and implement a new global settlement for the recovery of all outstanding debts from Talam.

It also stated that all settlement agreements signed earlier between state government agencies with Talam shall be terminated and cease to have any effect and that new terms would be negotiated.

“The document clearly shows that the Selangor government is aware that there was a settlement agreement by the subsidiaries of the state government to collect the debts from Talam,” Chua said.

“‘All previous settlement is terminated’,” Chua said, quoting from the letter.

“Hence, all the assets accepted by the Selangor government are based on this decision and have nothing to do with the previous state government,” he said.

Chua also challenged Khalid to a debate on the debt recovery exercise, adding that he did not want to debate with any DAP member who only had “third-hand information”.

-The Star-