In the midst of an ongoing debate over low-cost housing projects in Penang, Perak DAP chairman Nga Kor Ming today challenged the BN Perak state government to reveal the 40,367 units of low-cost houses, public housing projects and affordable homes it claimed to have built since 2013.

In a statement, Nga said the reported rebuttal by state housing exco Rusnah Kassim was “illogical” because Syarikat Perumahan Negara (SPNB) is a federal agency with an allocation to build houses using federal funds.

“According to the auditor-general’s report, in the period between 2012 and 2014, there were 4,341 applications for affordable housing but only 240 units were successfully built in that period.

“Therefore it is highly illogical that the state government supposedly built 40,367 units in the public housing and affordable housing category (until 2016) when the total applications were only for 4,341 units,” said Nga, who is Kepayang state assemblyperson.

Rusnah had yesterday reportedly said the state government had actually surpassed its initial 35,000 units target for affordable housing and low-cost houses, as set-out under BN’s 13th general election manifesto.

Berita Harian quoted Rusnah as saying that SPNB and several other state-linked agencies had between June 2013 and January this year, built 3,552 units of low-cost houses.

She said this was on top of the 25,679 affordable and low-cost housing units already built within the same period, with another 14,958 units scheduled for completion by next year.

'Only 871 units built'

Rusnah was responding to Nga’s earlier claims, made in the Perak state assembly last week, that the state government had only built 871 units of low-cost housing from between 2008 and 2015.

Nga, who stands by his claims, also said the AG's report had stated that the federal government had allocated RM78.15 million to execute four public housing projects in the state, under the 10th Malaysia Development Plan.

“Only one out of the four projects, at Simpang Perdana, Changkat Jering, was completed on time. The remaining 75 percent (three projects) failed to be completed on schedule.

“(And) aside from that (the four projects), as a government agency that has been granted over 2,000 acres of land for development, Perak Menteri Besar Inc has also clearly failed to build public housing projects to assist the rakyat,” Nga claimed.

As such, Nga urged the Perak state government to display all of the low-cost houses, public housing projects and affordable homes that it has supposedly built, for public inspection.

This latest row also came in the wake of a similar debate between Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Housing, Local Government and Urban Wellbeing Minister Abdul Rahman Dahlan, triggered by allegations that Lim had purchased his bungalow at below market price, in exchange for selling state land supposedly meant for low-cost housing projects, also at a cheaper price.