Land valuations far less than cost of work by developer, court told in Guan Eng trial

The Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court was today told that valuations done on two plots of land given ownership to Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd (CZBUCG) by the Penang government were far less than the cost of work done by the developer pertaining to the undersea tunnel and paired roads projects.

This was agreed on by two valuation officers from the Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH) in Georgetown, Penang, during cross-examination by lawyers Gobind Singh Deo and Haijan Omar, representing former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng who is facing corruption charges pertaining to the projects.

The 25th prosecution witness, Zakariya Nayan, 55, agreed with Haijan that Lot 702 in Bandar Tanjung Pinang, valued at RM50 million, was far less than the cost of work done by CZBUCG, which was estimated at RM138 million.

Nurul Asshima Aminullah, the 26th witness, also agreed with Gobind’s suggestion that the Plot A of Lot 713 at the same location, valued at RM30 million, was far lower than the RM73 million for the work done by the company.

Both witnesses agreed that based on the valuations done, the Penang government benefited greatly and did not suffer any losses through the land swap.

The witnesses, replying to deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib during re-examination, admitted that they were unaware of what sort of work was being carried out by CZBUCG.

Reading from his witness statement, Zakariya said that around the end of December 2014, he received a file containing documents and an application from the director of the Penang Land and Mines Office for a valuation of Lot 702 to be transferred to Ewein Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd.

He said Lot 702, which had an area size of ​​14,863 square metres for freehold ownership, was valued at RM3,360 per square metre. After being rounded up, this totalled RM50 million as of December 2014.

Ewein Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd is a joint venture company between CZBUCG and Ewein Zenith Sdn Bhd to develop the land plots for the City of Dreams seafront development mega project.

Former Penang executive councillor Lim Hock Seng previously testified that Lim had approved the award of Plot 702 to CZBUCG during a state executive council meeting on Dec 11, 2014.

Meanwhile, Asshima made a similar valuation for Lot 713, which had an area of 8,093 square metres, valuing it at RM3,700 per square metres before rounding up the total as of November 2016 to RM30 million.

According to the first amended charge, Lim, 60, is accused of using his position as then Penang chief minister to obtain a bribe of RM3.3 million for helping a company owned by Zarul Ahmad secure the construction project worth RM6,341,383,702 between January 2011 and August 2017.

According to the second amended charge, Lim is accused of soliciting bribes amounting to 10% of the profits from Zarul to be earned by the company as gratification for helping Zarul’s company secure the project.

Lim also faces two charges of causing two plots of land worth RM208.8 million, belonging to the Penang government, to be disposed of to two companies linked to the state’s undersea tunnel project, between February 2015 and March 2017.

The trial before judge Azura Alwi continues on June 7.