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THURSDAY JULY 26, 2018 • THEEDGE FINANCIAL DAILY

Six agencies identifi ed Prasarana chief’s

to set up aff ordable tenure may be cut
short — sources

housing entity BY CHESTER TAY rana’s poor management.
Guan Eng also revealed that
& SANGEETHA AMARTHALINGAM
Prasarana sought an additional

KUALA LUMPUR: Prasarana Ma- financing of RM22 billion in the
laysia Bhd president and group form of government guarantees
chief executive officer (CEO) on March 30, on top of the initial
Masnizam Hisham may see her RM10 billion granted in 2015 to

three-year tenure cut short as she finance the project.
The unit is expected to materialise by end-2018 is said to be leaving the company On July 12, Lim said the gov-

amid criticism from lawmakers ernment agreed that the project
LOW YEN YEING/EDGEPROP.MY that it had caused the cost of the would continue, but at a much
BY SHAWN NG fordable housing development in light rail transit line 3 (LRT3) pro- lower cost of RM16.63 billion and
of EdgeProp.my Malaysia, namely high land price ject to balloon. a reduced size.
and scarcity of land; high compli- She took the top spot at the “It is expected that she will

KUALA LUMPUR: The housing and ance cost and contribution cost; state-owned transportation com- leave soon. She is the CEO when
local government ministry has identi- increased construction cost; access pany in January, replacing Datuk Prasarana asked for more money

fied six agencies that will be involved to financing by homebuyers; and Seri Azmi Abdul Aziz, whose term [for LRT3] and it was not a small
in the establishment of a single enti- the mismatch between housing ended on Dec 31 last year. sum. Some people also say that
ty — a move mooted by the central demand and supply. If her departure materialises, she was instructed to do it — to
bank — to oversee and coordinate BNM in its 2016 Annual Report it would be the latest in a string of raise money,” a source said.
affordable housing development had highlighted the need for a cen- high-profile departures at govern- When approached at the Par-

in the country, said the ministry’s tral repository, to be managed and ment-linked companies. liament lobby yesterday, Deputy
national housing department direc- monitored by a single authority People familiar with the matter Finance Minister Datuk Amirud-

tor-general Jayaselan Navaratnam. mandated to oversee the country’s told The Edge Financial Daily that din Hamzah said he is unaware of

“At this moment, we have iden- affordable housing needs. Masnizam’s resignation is “inevi- any leadership change at Prasa-
tified six agencies — the 1Malaysia Jayaselan said the ministry is also It noted that countries, that have table” as it was during her tenure rana, wholly-owned by Minister

People’s Housing Scheme (PR1MA), studying the affordable housing price made significant progress in ad- that Prasarana had attempted to of Finance Inc.

UDA Holdings Bhd, Syarikat Peruma- thresholds. dressing the issue of affordable seek additional funding from the Masnizam was previously CEO
han Negara Bhd (SPNB), the Federal housing, have integrated databases government for the construction of Prasarana Integrated Manage-

Territories Affordable Housing (Ru- “If there is overlapping, then we capturing the demand and supply of of LRT3. ment and Engineering Services
mawip), the Housing Programme for will do redeployment. We never housing that are useful in helping in On July 10, Finance Minister Lim Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned sub-
the Hardcore Poor (PPRT) and the have the thought of cutting staff ,” he the provision of aff ordable housing Guan Eng revealed that the project- sidiary of Prasarana.
1Malaysia Civil Servants Housing said, adding that the ministry will by the public and private sectors. ed total cost of the LRT3 project had She has served Prasarana for
(PPA1M). These are the ones that we also review the contracts of tempo- BNM reiterated this point in spiralled to a whopping RM31.45 12 years from 2005 as the head of

are taking on board first,” he said at rary staff to determine whether to the 2017 fourth quarter bulletin, billion from the original estimate legal division and as company sec-

the Affordable Housing Conference continue their employment. saying affordable housing provi- of RM9 billion retary at RapidKL. Among other

2018 held here yesterday. Jayaselan said the ministry is sion is currently fragmented and when the positions Masnizam has held at
He added that the ministry is also also studying the aff ordable hous- uncoordinated nationwide with project was Prasarana are group head of the
working with banks, Bank Negara ing price thresholds based on a over 20 national and state-level launched procurement division and head
Malaysia (BNM), the National Prop- regional mechanism. agencies involved in this eff ort. in 2015, of strategic communications and
erty Information Centre (Napic) and “We are suggesting RM300,000 “This institutional factor has blaming it marketing division, as well as head
the Real Estate Housing Developers as the threshold, while Rehda is led to policy coordination being on Prasa- officer of infrastructure services.

Association (Rehda) to find the best suggesting RM500,000. But let us an issue, resulting in slow pro-

way to establish the single entity. work and see which one is the most gress towards achieving the gov-
“We are working to sort it out by suitable one. We are looking at a ernment’s target of providing one
this August and then we will do due mechanism [based on] region in- million affordable homes by 2018. Masnizam took the top spot at

diligence and hope [the entity] can stead of state,” he added. Between 2013 and October 2017, Prasarana in January. Photo by
come into execution somewhere Nevertheless, he said, private only 255,341 homes have been Mohd Izwan Mohd Nazam
around the end of this year,” he said. developers share the responsibility completed by the various public

“We would like to execute imme- of providing affordable housing to- and private sector players,” it noted.
diately but it involves many agen- gether with the government, hence Under the Barisan Nasional
cies and companies. So we need both sides should work together. administration, former second
time to study the whole structure of “It is the government’s responsi- finance minister Datuk Seri Johari Anti-dumping probe on galvanised iron

each individual company or organ- bility to provide social housing but Abdul Ghani had also, on many
isation that is coming into the sys- private developers have to share occasions, suggested the setting imports from China, Vietnam launched
tem. After that, we will look into it some of the responsibility because up of a single entity to resolve

— whether we want to merge them CSR (corporate social responsibili- the affordable housing challenge. BY SULHI AZMAN next 120 days in accordance with the
or segmentise them into a certain ty) must come into play. Let us talk Countervailing and Anti-Dumping
type of development,” he added. to Rehda and see how we work out KUALA LUMPUR: Th e international Duties Act 1993 and related regu-
He noted that while there will the CSR part — maybe they allo- This article was first published in trade and industry ministry (Miti) lations.
be no retrenchment for permanent cate the land or build at cost price.” www.EdgeProp.my. Check out the has decided to initiate an anti-dump- “If the preliminary determina-
civil servants in the process, rede- According to the ministry, there website for the latest property news ing investigation on imports of gal- tion is affi rmative, the government

ployment will definitely take place. are five challenges hindering af- and listings vanised iron from China and Viet- will impose an anti-dumping duty
nam, after receiving a petition from at the rate that is necessary to pre-
a domestic producer on June 26. vent further injury to the domestic
The ministry said the petitioner industry,” it added.

MACC denies it will drop graft charges against Guan Eng has alleged that the imports from To assist with the anti-dumping
the two countries are being dumped probe, Miti said it will provide a set
into Malaysia at a price much lower of questionnaires to the interested
BY ADAM AZIZ said in a statement on its website. He also pleaded not guilty to than their domestic selling price. parties, including importers, for-

Local news portals reported ear- gaining gratification for himself “The petitioner further claimed eign producers, exporters and as-
KUALA LUMPUR: Th e Malaysian lier yesterday that MACC is likely to and his wife Betty Chew by ap- that imports from the alleged mar- sociations.
Anti-Corruption Commission withdraw the two charges against proving the application for con- kets have increased in terms of abso- “Other interested parties may
(MACC) has denied claims that it Guan Eng upon the resumption of version of agricultural land to a lute quantity and that the domestic request for the questionnaires no
will terminate two corruption charg- his corruption trial next week. Th e public housing zone to a company. industry suffered material injury,” later than Aug 8, 2018. Interested

es against Finance Minister Lim reports were based on a report, quot- Businesswoman Phang Li Miti said in a statement yesterday. parties may also provide additional
Guan Eng. ing an MACC source, in Chinese daily Khoon, 46, also pleaded not guilty “The government has evaluat- supporting evidence to Miti before

The anti-graft agency said it has China Press. to abetting Lim in obtaining the ed and considered the evidence of Aug 23, 2018,” it said.

no power to perform such action for On June 30 last year, Guan Eng bungalow at an undervalued cost. dumping, injury and causal link and In the event no response is re-
any legal case. claimed trial to using his position On May 21, Lim’s trial was ad- decided to initiate an anti-dumping ceived within the specifi ed period,
“On the contrary, [the preroga- then as the chief minister of Penang journed to July 30 pending a re- investigation,” it added. Miti said the government will make

tive] is under the purview of the At- to obtain a plot of land and a bunga- view of the charges by the new Miti said it will undertake a pre- its preliminary findings “based on
torney-General’s Chambers,” MACC low at below market value. attorney-general, Tommy Th omas. liminary investigation within the the best facts available” .