S'gor rebuts Tee Yong, releases Talam white paper

Nigel Aw 12:47PM Nov 20, 2012

The Talam Corporation white paper was today released to the public in a bid to put to rest doubts over the Selangor state government's debt recovery exercise from Talam.

It has been framed by MCA young professionals bureau chief Chua Tee Yong, as a bailout of the company.

The white paper which was first tabled at the Selangor Legislative Assembly yesterday, rubbished MCA's claims that the state government had bought over Talam assets.

"This is not a bailout but a pure debt recovery exercise. No payment in cash or kind has ever been made to Talam or its land or properties," it asserted.

Instead, it said the reverse was true as Talam had disposed its assets to the state government to clear up its debts.

Chua had rationalised the "bailout" by claiming that the state government had not only purchased Talam assets but at overvalued prices.
Among the accusations that were addressed were:

Danau Putra

Chua: Selangor government valued the lands at RM15 psf in the debt recovery but a ‘similar’ neighbouring plot was auctioned off for RM5.20 psf. Therefore state government had ‘overpaid’ RM57.3 million.

White Paper: The RM15 psf valuation was done by the Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH) on Nov 17, 2011.
The lands had since been sold by the Selangor government, through Menteri Besar Incorporated (MBI), to Golden Sprint Sdn Bhd (GSSB) amd Perikatan Progresif Sdn Bhd at the same price of RM15 psf.

Therefore MBI has recovered full value of the land. A re-evaluation of the land by JPPH on July 20 this year after the sale found it has appreciated to RM17.66 psf.

Bestari Jaya

Chua: Selangor government valued the lands at RM80,000 in the debt recovery but a Talam evaluation report put it at only RM60,000, therefore the state ‘overpaid’ RM42 million for the 2,263 acres of land.

White Paper: The RM80,000 valuation was made by Mitra Valuers and is more favourable than the RM115,000 for which the property was previously transacted. MBI had only on June 19 received an offer to sell 950.64 acres of the land for the same price.

Bukit Beruntung

Chua: JPPH valued the land at RM113 million but Selangor accepted it in the debt recovery exercise at RM375 million, therefore it ‘overpaid’ RM232 million.

White Paper: JPPH had valued the land at RM113 million but Suleiman & Co had valued it at RM375 million. This was because the former took it as agricultural land but the latter took into account its pending conversion to mixed development land status.

Talam had applied for the conversion in 1994 and paid the RM8 million premium but was stalled as it had yet to pay the RM4 million for drainage costing. MBI had completed the conversion in 2010 by paying the RM4 million, which will be deducted at Talam’s expense.
Therefore Suleiman & Co’s valuation is more reflective as it is now a mixed development land.

Series of white papers

Also tabled yesterday was a white paper on the Selangor restructuring exercise which include the state government’s correspondence with the federal government in attempting to seek a solution to the problem.

Speaking at a press conference later, Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said that both documents can be obtained by the public through the Selangor Freedom of Information Enactment 2010.

“After this white paper, I suggest that this matter will only be entertained if necessary because it has been settled  and the debt collected a long time ago, but the story keeps going on,” he said.