AUDIT REPORT Selangor put to waste an RM28 million housing enclave in Shah Alam, which was built especially for state executive council (exco) members, by largely abandoning it after a change of state government from BN to Pakatan Rakyat in 2008.

The Auditor-General's Report 2013 released today said the Selangor government spent RM6 million to upkeep the houses, but the 10 double and triple-storey bungalows were only occupied some four out of the 65 months tracked since March 2008.

The enclave is in a state of disarray now, the report said.

Built by Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS), the houses in Section 7 of Shah Alam were originally lived in by the state assembly speaker and Selangor exco members from April 2005. They moved out after the 2008 general election.

"The auditor-general’s opinion is that the management of government housing has been unsatisfactory because there were repairs to be made, poor upkeeping efforts and missing assets.

"Action is needed to manage them more efficiently," the report says.

Efforts to rent out did not work

Compared with a 93.8 percent occupancy for the first 34 months from June 2005 to March 2008, the estate only saw 6.8 percent occupancy from April 2008 until August 2013. Efforts to rent out the units did not work and only some RM170,000 collected over the five years, far below the cost of the upkeep of the units.

Built on 6.51 acres of state land, the houses were changed from "official exco residences" to "government housing" and put under the state secretariat management after the previous BN government leaders moved out.

However, in January this year, it was said that up to five Selangor exco members were now keen to occupy these houses, as soon as repair works could be completed.

The Auditor-General Report also said a survey conducted from August to October last year recorded extensive damages to the bungalows, including cracked cement floors, rusted pipes and dysfunctional swimming pools.

There was also a list of inventories removed from the houses, aside from missing air conditioning units.

Taking a sample of only 182 out of 5,298 listed assets/inventories that were placed in the houses, the Auditor-General’s Office also found 42 of these items missing or damaged. These included television sets, furniture and refrigerators.