The Klang municipal council has denied that one of its six horses has died, as claimed by an opposition state assemblyperson.

Secretary Mokhtar Ahmad said the council has received six of the 10 horses that it bought from Britain and Australia for its mounted crime prevention unit.

"We have all six horses in the stable (in Taman Rakyat in Taman Sri Andalas). Another will arrive later this evening and the rest some time this week," he said when contacted today.

"The horse that died belonged to the company that is hired to handle and train our horses in Universiti Pertanian Malaysia. This happened last month."

'Only five horses'

Bandar Klang state assemblyperson Teng Chang Khim claimed today that, based on information received and checks at the council's stable last Friday, a horse had died.

Teng said he had only seen five horses outside that day and again the next day, when he went back to the stable with the Chinese press in tow.

Teng, the DAP central executive committee member and former youth chief, also said council president Mohd Sharif Yusof should explain what had happened to the sixth horse.

Quoting an earlier announcement by Mohd Sharif, he said all 10 horses, bought at a cost of RM250,000, should have arrived by now.

"But during my visit on Saturday morning, I found only five horses being trained in the covered paddock. The stable was empty," he said when contacted.

Two sources

Teng said that, if it was true that one of the six expensive thoroughbreds had died, the council was duty-bound to explain the matter to ratepayers.

"Since two different sources told me that a horse in the council's stable had died, there must be some truth to it," he noted.

"Public accountability and transparency of public administration require the council to tell people the truth, especially in such a controversial matter where such an exorbitant amount had been spent without prior consultation."

The Selangor government - supporting the municipal council's moves to upgrade its image in a bid to attain Royal City status - recently come under fire for arbitrarily using ratepayers' money on costly cosmetic changes.

As a result, it has had to reverse its directive that required all local councillors to don the baju melayu/kurung as a ceremonial attire when attending council meetings and functions.