Agency has ‘regained full ownership’ of the land in Jalan Semarak without cost

By KEVIN WONG / Pic By MUHD AMIN NAHARUL

The Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) announced yesterday that it has regained ownership of 16 parcels of valuable Kuala Lumpur (KL) land that was reported to have been transferred to the developer of the Kuala Lumpur Vertical City (KLVC) project.

There is a forensic audit in the works to determine if there is any wrongdoing involved in the transfer, says Shahrir (Pic by Afif Abd Halim/TMR)

Chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad said the agency has “regained full ownership” of the land along Jalan Semarak, KL, that had been transferred under a RM270 million deal to property developer Synergy Promenade Sdn Bhd.

Felda claimed it did not receive any payment for the transfer of the land, which was executed in March last year, and had lodged a police report in December over the matter.

The government has also launched a forensic audit of the deal using an independent auditor. These investigations would be pursued to their conclusions.

Shahrir said the developer has returned the land to Felda without cost. “With that said, we (Felda) will not be retracting the police report made on Dec 21 and 28.

“At the same time, there is a forensic audit in the works to determine if there was any wrongdoing involved in the transfer,” he told a press conference in KL yesterday.

Shahrir made public Felda’s concern over the loss of the plots in December last year.

He said police are expected to hand investigation papers on the land transfer to the Attorney General within the week, but the audit would be extended another 30 days.

Felda had also put a caveat on the plots involved, arresting all further development, and revoked a power of attorney (PA) that was given to Synergy Promenade.

“Following our Dec 12 police report, we made a registrar’s caveat on 15 of the transferred lots on Dec 26. We then made the registrar’s caveat for the remaining lot after making the Dec 28 police report,” Shahrir said.

He, however, said the KLVC project is expected to continue under Synergy Promenade but that will have to wait until the police and audit investigations are completed.

The story broke when sources claimed that Felda was in danger of losing ‘RM200m’ payment for the land plots (Pic by Muhd Amin Naharul/TMR)

“We will soon hold discussions with Synergy Promenade to negotiate how best to implement the development agreement and to augment the project where it benefits everyone.

“Additionally, I think the main concern for us is to amend the PA given to the developer where it is a more limited form that is revocable and must require written authorisation from us if the land is be sold,” he said. Under the previously agreed terms between the two parties, Felda would receive RM500 million or 10% of the project’s gross development value, whichever is higher.

The story broke when sources claimed that Felda was in danger of losing “RM200 million” payment for the land plots because the ownership of the land had already been transferred to the developer.

It was believed that the transfer took place when Felda’s investment arm, Felda Investment Corp Sdn Bhd, appointed Synergy Promenade as its main developer in June 2014.

“We were amazed to hear about the change of ownership which easily involved millions of ringgit. However, Felda did not receive a single cent and no payment was made,” Shahrir said.

Additionally, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Razali Ibrahim did not disregard the possibility of corruption to be involved in the matter.