'Khir Toyo's criticisms on sand mining issue baseless'

The Selangor menteri besar’s political secretary said former MB Khir Toyo of having absolutely no understanding of state administration of sand mining, even while the latter was in office.

In a press statement today, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad ( left ) responded to the Khir’s criticisms on the Selangor government’s handling of the issue by blasting the former MB’s own administration.

“His criticism shows the (Selangor) opposition leader (Khir) does not understand the administrative process of sand mining - either in the past or as introduced by the new Pakatan government after March 2008,” he said.    

Khir - commenting on the RM5,000 rewards that the state government was offering community leaders and government staff who helped to combat the illegal sand mining - said the move was undermining the district office.

Nik Nazmi said the reward is meant “to complement enforcement efforts by the district office.”

“The question of (state) skepticism towards the district office, who has a major role in combating corruption, should not arise because this reward is to encourage the village safety and development committees (JKKK) and the village head to assist the district office to address theft of sand in their locality,” he added.

He says Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim offered this reward to give community leaders the opportunity to participate in increasing sand mining revenues.

‘Khir misreported royalties’

“I do not understand how the opposition leader Mohamad Khir Toyo ( right ) can interpret the rewards as showing the state government was taking a 'hands off' attitude in combating sand-stealing, and that it shows a lack of trust in the district office,” he said.

The political secretary also criticised the former MB’s own administration, saying that Khir had given him “wrong information” on the RM20.5 million sand royalty the latter had claimed he had  raised when he was menteri besar.

“The official report by the Office of Land and Mining confirmed only RM2.9 million collected that year,” he said.    

He further alleged that the state-owned sand mining company Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd (KSSB) was not empowered to issue licenses.

They were instead issued by the Land Office, and KSSB in turn called for open tender to select contractors to execute the mining according to the licenses.

KSSB, he said, also monitors the contractors to ensure they make declarations and pay royalties to the state.

He stressed that the current system yielded higher royalties than the previous one under Khir.

‘Previous administration did nothing’

The previous government under Khir, he added, “actually had the ‘last hand’ in management and administration (of sand mining), resulting in many companies or contractors under-declaring.”

This, said Nik Nazmi, cost the state hundreds of thousands of ringgit.

Nik Nazmi also faulted Khir’s administration for “making no effort to curb sand-stealing until it has become a serious problem today.”

He says during Khir’s tenure as menteri besar, he had done nothing to benefit the sand industry in Selangor.

“It does not make sense now that he suddenly champions the issue, when he has previously never done anything to improve the system (of sand revenue collection),” he concluded.