Umno Sabah is presently building its new headquarters in Karamunsing, Kota Kinabalu. No one in Umno Sabah seems to know the construction cost of the building though. There has been no building committee formed to oversee the construction of the building and no meetings have ever been held to either discuss details of the building or seek approval from Umno Sabah's main committee.

But this is not all that is happening. More perplexing is the choice of site.

Umno Sabah actually owns a five-acre piece of prime land close to the Bank Simpanan Nasional building in the swanky neighbourhood of the Sutra Resort. For all intents and purposes, this piece of land can be considered a 'gold mine'.

But the new Umno Sabah is not on Umno's own land. Instead, it is being built on an alternative piece of land in which someone has a vested interest in. What is the size of this land, whether the entire piece of land or just part of it is being used for this building, and how much has this piece of land been valued for has not been revealed and no one in Umno Sabah knows the details.

The signboard says that the building owner is Badan Perhubungan Umno Negeri Sabah. However, below this is another name, Accodon Sdn Bhd, which is listed as the developer of the building. Who then, is the owner of this new Umno Sabah building, Umno Sabah or Accordon? This is not clear.

What is clear is that Umno Sabah does not own the land. The party that does own it appears to be Accordon. But what is the relationship between Umno Sabah and Accordon? No one in Umno Sabah seems to know.

If Umno Sabah was the owner of this piece of land - or the building - then it would have had to register it in the names of the trustees. And those who are authorised to act as trustees would have to be named and approved by Umno Sabah's main committee. As it stands, Umno Sabah has never met to discuss this matter nor has it authorised anyone to act as its trustee.

In short, Umno Sabah has entirely no interest in either the land or the building and its name is just being used for purposes best known to those behind this entire scam.

But why is Umno Sabah's name being used? For two reasons.

First of all, a piece of land of this size and location would attract a hefty premium. However, since the land is now allegedly owned by Umno, then the premium can either be reduced or waived altogether.

Whoever, therefore, owns this land can get it practically for 'free'. All they have to do is use part of this land to build the Umno Sabah building, get an exemption on the premium, and the balance of the land would be theirs for free.

This is actually not a new tactic. They did this with the former Selangor Turf Club land in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. Ananda Krishnan built the Twin Towers there. He then sold one of the towers to Petronas for the price it cost to build both towers plus the cost of the land thrown in.

He therefore ended up getting the second tower free, paid for by Petronas, or rather the Malaysian taxpayers. And this is what is happening with the new Umno Sabah building.

But in Ananda's case he had to fund the purchase of the land plus the construction of the towers before he could sell off one of the towers to Petronas. With the Umno Sabah building, it is even better. Not only can the landowner get the land for free, but the building is being built not with Accordon's money but with donations from the public.

As it is now, no one in Umno Sabah seems to know how much the construction cost of the new building is. But donations are being collected left, right and center (and probably behind as well) from all and sundry.

The donation box is overflowing as it is, yet money is still being collected. No one knows how much money has been collected because there is no committee, meaning no accounts or reports need to be tabled at any meetings.

Questions, questions and more questions that beg for answers from Sabah Chief Minister and Umno head Musa Aman. Is he not worried someone may question him?

Well, Sabah has been adopting the 'rotation of chief ministers' system for some time now. Musa Aman is supposed to retire soon. But now they are abolishing the rotation system and Musa Aman feels he is going to be chief minister for life. Maybe the two-year rotation system is good after all for it keeps the chief ministers straight and clean.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should address this matter. If it is proven that there has indeed been an element of corruption behind the Sabah Umno building, then action should be taken against those guilty.

Only then will Pak Lah be seen as serious in combating corruption. If not, he would only be seen as just another 'talk-only-no-action' man.

And if the Umno Sabah building exercise is above board, can we please see the accounts?