Penang Government must back up claims on low-cost houses

KUALA LUMPUR:  Kedah Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang urged the DAP-led Penang government to provide a full and detailed list of the 11,596 low and medium cost houses it claimed to have built since it took over the state administration in 2008.

Saying that the Penang Government should be transparent, Tan when speaking to The Mole said: “If the state government claims to have built these homes, they must provide a full list stating the exact location of where in Penang these housing units were built.’’

“Based on the Auditor-General’s Report 2010 not a single low-cost and low-medium cost houses were built in Penang and this is something Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had admitted to in a Star news report," Tan added.

“I do not think it is difficult for the state government to come up with the list.’’

Tan who is a lawyer by profession said the state government should not confuse Penangites between houses built by the private sectors and those built by state government-linked company Penang Development Corporation (PDC).

The Gerakan man was commenting on a blog post by Pisau.net stating that the 11,596 low-cost and low-medium cost units which Lim’s political secretary Zairil Khir Johari claims to have been built by the state government were untrue.

The blogger wrote: “Zairil had lied in the state’s official newsletter Buletin Mutiara last April when he said that 11,596 units were built by PDC and it contradicted a recent statement by him (Zairil) that 3, 806 units had been built by the state-linked company since 2008.”

Another blog post in Pilihan Anda raised the same issue, pointing out that the Buletin Mutiara’s report contradicted with an earlier statement made by Lim, admitting PDC only built 1,194 low-cost and 2,227 low-medium cost units while another 2,612 low- cost and 5,563 low-medium cost units by private companies.

Penang Umno Youth chief Shaik Hussein Mydin in a news report said the Buletin Mutiara report was an attempt by the state government to fool Penangites that it is determined to champion the fate of the poor in the state.

Zairil when contacted said the houses were built by both the PDC and private companies.

Source: MOLE