All land deals involving Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) will be carried out through open tender, says Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad

Khalid said this was to avoid any transaction of land sale and purchase at dubious prices, when compared with the market price.

“Before, it was done through direct negotiation,” he said when opening Plaza Arkadia in Kuala Lumpur today.

Khalid recently revealed that RM149 million was recovered after the government renegotiated terms on 16 land parcels sold by DBKL during the previous administration, as well as able to get back 5.04ha of land valued at RM113.8 million.

The renegotiation was conducted by a special committee following the action by the previous government in selling the land at a price much lower than the market value.

Meanwhile, Khalid said the investigation conducted by his ministry was only in on the commercial aspect of the land deals.

“The ministry cannot investigate the aspect of corruption and misappropriation, because we cannot access the bank accounts of (the suspected) officers,” he added.

Khalid said this when asked about a call from anti-graft group Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) recently which demanded him reveal the outcome of the MACC probe into allegedly shady land deals by the DBKL.

- Bernama