VIDEO l 3:57 mins

Sixteen years after the government commissioned a land swap deal to fund the construction of an army camp in Skudai, Johor, for RM 256 million, it neither has the camp completed nor the land, which was mortgaged by the contractor.

This is revealed in a 2009 Auditor-General's Report and in the 2002 audit report as well.

NONE The situation now is that the army camp is considered an abandoned project, causing the Defence Ministry a massive loss, PAS' Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar ( right ) said today.

The army's Seventh Brigade complex was supposed to be the new home for army personnel from the Tebrau, Majidee and Kluang camps.

To build this camp, the Defence Ministry in 1997 entered into an agreement with a consortium to swap the government lands on which the Tebrau and Majidee camps are sited, in return for the construction of the new camp in Skudai.

However, the consortium, apparently facing financial difficulties, mortgaged the swapped lands to obtain a loan of RM465 million - which was not put to use for the construction of the long delayed camp project.

"I don't know what will happen now, if the new owners of the lands ask the army camps to move out. They don't have a new camp," Mahfuz told a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

According to the 2009 audit report, the project is only 18.3 percent complete and suffers from serious soil erosion.

It also says that the project site is not being supervised by the consortium.

The audit report then recommended to the Defence Ministry to end its contract with the consortium and the contractor and also demand compensation from the consortium, Kausar Corporation Sdn Bhd (KCSB), for failing to complete the project within the last issued deadline in 2003.

It also said that if the contract with the consortium is ended, the army personnel at the current camps in Majidee and Tebrau need to be shifted out.