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C4: Like BN, Harapan also appointing politicians to FT foundation
Published:  Feb 14, 2019 12:12 PM
Updated: 5:05 AM

Pakatan Harapan is emulating BN in appointing politicians to the controversy-plagued Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan (YWP), said transparency watchdog C4 Centre.

C4 executive director Cynthia Gabriel noted that the previous YWP board of trustees under BN, which comprised politicians, had been involved in various dubious land deals.

"There is a real danger of politicians sitting in foundations to abuse their position, as seen in the past.

"It opens up opportunities for officials to bypass objective criteria for assessment and the selection of developers, thus facilitating cronyism, nepotism and corruption," she said in a statement today.

Gabriel said while Khalid Abdul Samad is the YWP chairperson by virtue of his position of federal territories minister, several other Harapan politicians also sit on the board of trustees.

She said they are Federal Territories Amanah vice-chairperson Ahmad Zamri Asa’ad Khuzaimi, Federal Territories Amanah treasurer Hayatul Kamil Termudi, Seputeh Bersatu chief Mohamad Riadz Mohamad Hashim, USJ Taipan DAP branch pro-tem vice-chairperson Muhammad Khairil Khalid and PKR Sembrong coordinator Onn Abu Bakar.

Gabriel urged Harapan to ensure that politicians are not appointed to the board of trustees and instead appoint an independent YWP board of trustees with community participation.

She added that YWP should also disclose the foundation's accounts and the annual budget.

"C4 further reasserts our call that all foundations must be free from politics if the new Pakatan Harapan government is serious about reforms," she said.

Gabriel said YWP under BN saw the foundation involved in the transfer of many state lands in the federal territories.

Former Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor has been charged with receiving RM2 million in bribes from property developers when serving as the previous federal territories minister. 

At the time, she said the YWP board was also filled with politicians, namely Cheras Umno chief Syed Ali Syed Abbas Alhabshee, Seputeh Umno chief Mustapa Kamal Mohd Yusoff, former Titiwangsa MP Johari Abdul Ghani, former Setiawangsa MP Ahmad Fauzi Zahari and Labuan MP Rozman Isli, who has since defected from Umno to Warisan.

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