SHAH ALAM: A legal firm is among other entities identified as being involved in illegal land transfer activities in Selangor, the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) was told today.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said the legal firm was believed to be directly involved based on their areas of expertise, including completing all land transactions.
“It is not the work of one person; they have links and connections with several departments and other institutions to complete the process.
“So far, a legal firm and officers from the district and land office (PDT) were found involved. That’s how much we know now,” he said in reply to Danial Al-Rashid Haron Aminar Rashid (PH-Batu Tiga) during Question Time.
Danial had wanted to know whether there were other entities involved after Selangor State Land and Mines Office director Datuk Dr Yusri Zakariah made a disclosure last month, confirming that seven staff of the Klang District and Land Office were among 17 civil servants arrested over illegal land transfer activities in the state.
Elaborating, Amirudin said the compensation for the landowners involved would be examined on a case-by-case basis because it involved a high amount, and the state government would look for replacement land with the agreement of all parties.
“Not just the landowners, the state government was also affected by the (illegal land transfer) activities because we had to spend a huge amount of money to address it,” he said.
At the same time, Amirudin said the state government is also reviewing weaknesses or shortcomings during the transition from the manual to the electronic system for land transfer to avoid overlapping development and unclear ownership, which brought about a negative impact on the owners and the state government.
He said the state government had identified at least three cases of illegal land transfer, and some of the officers involved had died or retired from public service.
“But what we can do is file a police report, and the police will investigate. If the officer is still there at the PDT, we will transfer him to another place or at least impose some restrictions with regulations and suspension,” he said.
Amirudin said that apart from disciplinary action, a session with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and an integrity improvement programme were also being implemented to prevent corruption and misappropriation in the public service.
“The Public Service Department is also implementing job rotation for counter service staff so that no officer would be in one place for too long to make it possible for unwanted incidents (misappropriation) to occur,” he said.
He added that the state government had also ordered each PDT to conduct audits and inspections to ensure that the incident of illegal land transfer does not happen again, although currently, only PDT was found to be involved.
