'Up to smallholders to file report against Liew to SLA'
Published on: Saturday, November 15, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: It is up to the parties involved in the Bagahak Smallholders Scheme legal suit case to file an alleged misconduct report against Christina Liew to the Sabah Law Association.Minister of Special Tasks, Datuk Teo Chee Kang said in this case, it was up to the smallholders themselves or Borneo Samudera Sdn Bhd if they want to do so.He was replying to the query from Bongawan Assemblyman, Mohamad Alamin who asked if a misconduct report should be filed to the SLA since the case happened before Liew was elected as Assemblywoman for Api Api.
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Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Jainab Ahmad then asked what is the action to be taken against Liew who stated that the "it was the government that cheated" while debating the State Budget.Deputy Speaker Datuk Dr Johnson Tee responded that the State Assembly office had written a letter to the Api Api Assemblywoman asking her to explain her action.The issue was raised when Teo who was delivering the Chief Minister's Department Budget winding up speech on behalf of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman explained the Government's side of the story "so that the people will know the real situation."He said the Government was committed to assist the smallholders and never cheated them.
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He said the Bagahak Smallholders scheme was incepted in 1980 by the State Government aimed at eradicating poverty and allowed the poor people to own land and develop them.Under the scheme, a 15-acre lot was distributed to each smallhodler and the total scheme area was 11,000 hectares.
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One of the conditions in the Scheme Offer Letter was that the participants must develop the lots before January 1987 failing which the Government has the right to come in and appoint an agency to develop the land.Since most of the smallholders failed to comply the State Governemnt in 1993 appointed the Sabah Land Development Board (SLDB) to develop the lots for oil palm plantation.A development agreement was also signed between the SLDB and the Bagahak Smallholders to this effect in 1995, where the SLDB would develop the land using its own money, which in turned converted as loans for the smallholders that should be repaid within 10 years.SLDB spent RM47,037,758 to develop the land.In order not to burden the smallholders with the big sum of loan, the State Government in 1997 decided that a joint-venture is created between the smallholders and Borneo Samudera Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary company of government-owned company, Sawit Kinabalu.Under the agreement, the 11,000 hectares of land were to be injected into the joint-venture company and the smallholders to be given a share in the company. Through this way, the smallholders loan to SLDB would be settled in full by the joint-venture company. The agreement was signed on July 9, 1998.Under Clause 11 of the joint-venture agreement, the declaration of dividend was subjected to the company board of directors' resolution and so far no dividend was declared because of land issues, tax, cash flow and incomplete restructuting.However, the joint-venture company had paid advances in lieu of dividend to the participants from 2000 until 2013, which amounted to RM49,150 per person."This is much higher than the price paid for each lot bought by a buyer who was a staff of the Api Api assemblywoman legal firm at the time of the sales and purchase agreement was signed that is RM45,000," he said.The advances in lieu of dividend were not paid to those who had sold their lots until the litigation process in the Court had been completed following disputes between the buyer, smallholders and Borneo Samudera due to the sales.The sales of part of the joint-venture land comprising 12,000 acres had affected the operation of the joint-venture as well as resulted in the smallholders losing their land and sustainable income to an individual."This is againt the objective of the formation of the Bagahak Smallholders Scheme," he said.Meanwhile, he said the Land and Survey Department was heightening its enforcement to collect land quit rent arrears totalling RM67,714,171.71 from land owners in the state.He said the department had issued 3,810 Notice of Demand to land owners to pay up within 30 days and after that a surcharge of 24 per cent would be further imposed.If the land owner failed to comply with the Notice of Demand, he said a Notice of Sale would be issued and the land owner would be given three months to pay up or the land would be auctioned in order to get back the amount owed.He was responding to Tamparuli Assemblyman Datuk Wilfred Bumburing who asked the reason for land quit rent collection next year to be estimated at RM73 million, which is lower than this year's RM72 million."Actually the estimate revenue collection from land in 2015 increased by RM1 million and there is no reduction of RM2 million," said the Minister.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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