Retire over false land sale claim, Guan Eng tells Umno men
Lim had last week accused Umno’s Datuk Zainal Abidin Osman and Datuk Abdul Rahman Datuk Dahlan of “viciously” waging a campaign of lies against his administration. — file picKUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — Lim Guan Eng told two Umno leaders to retire from politics today, saying their claims the RM1.1 billion sale of land in Bayan Mutiara was not sold via open tender has been disproven.
Ivory Properties Group Bhd (IPGB) said on Saturday it had purchased the prime land after emerging as the highest bidder in an open and competitive tender called by the Penang government, which closed on December 31, 2010.
The public-listed property development firm said it had declared as such in announcements on Bursa Malaysia.
“Can Penang Umno Chairman Datuk Zainal Abidin Osman and Kota Belud MP Datuk Abdul Rahman Datuk Dahlan immediately retire from politics now that the Penang PR state government has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the sale was done by open competitive tender?” Lim said today.
The Penang chief minister had last week accused Penang Umno chairman Datuk Zainal Abidin Osman and Umno MP Datuk Abdul Rahman Datuk Dahlan of having “viciously” carried out a campaign of lies against his administration’s sale of the 41.5 hectares of land on the southeast side of the island.
He offered to retire from politics if Umno could prove the claim and challenged Zainal and Abdul Rahman to do the same if they failed to do so.
The DAP secretary general said in a statement today the sale was done through a Request For Proposal for an open tender that was published on websites and newspapers and observed by independent chartered surveyors and registered valuers.
He said 37 parties had bought the tender documents for RM3,000 each but that only four proposals were received.
After AG Pearl was disqualified for not submitting an earnest deposit of RM1.2 million, Ivory Properties had submitted the highest bid of RM240 per square foot or RM1.072 billion to be paid over eight years, he said.
“The state government further requested Ivory to improve on the payment terms of RM240 psf over eight years’ payment to RM240 psf over five years’ payment. This was accepted by Ivory,” the Bagan MP added.
The Umno leaders had accused the Penang government of selling the prime real estate at a 50 per cent discount to private developers instead of the actual market price of RM420 per square foot.
