Another police report has been lodged over the Petaling Jaya billboards row, this time urging the police to probe alleged abuse of power and corruption by the Selangor Mentri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo.

In lodging the report today at the Petaling Jaya district police station, DAP Selangor publicity chief Ronnie Liu said recent news reports had posed "overwhelming evidence" against Khir's involvement in the controversy.

"The police must now determine if he was telling the truth and whether there were elements of abuse of powers as menteri besar," he said.

Over the past two weeks, Khir had been under intense scrutiny over the matter where he repeatedly denied involvement in the controversy, adding that it was "outrageous" to allow anyone to monopolise an industry.

On Aug 15, however, English daily The Sun published documents which explicitly showed that the state government had in January 2005 entered into an agreement with Bernam Kiara Sdn Bhd giving the company a 15-year concession on outdoor advertising in Selangor.

The agreement states that Bernam Kiara would have rights over, "privatisation of maintenance, build and operate pedestrian walks, pedestrian bridges, gantries, road directional signs, overhead bridges and outdoor advertising in the whole state".

Act like developed state

A red-faced Khir later pinned the blame on his subordinates over the agreement, which he said was different from the one approved by the state executive council.

He said that his officials had apparently inserted "outdoor advertising" into the agreement.

At the same press conference on Aug 15, Khir insisted that there was no billboard monopoly given to the company.

He, however, conceded there were no open tenders, or any form of competitive bidding, for the concession.

In the latest development, The Star today reported that Khir would not take action against his subordinates who were responsible for the changes made to the agreement.

He argued that they had acted in "good faith", apparently to speed up the building of pedestrian bridges in the state.

Liu said that surely someone should be held responsible for the fiasco as well as similar state-sanctioned monopolies in other industries such as pest-control in Subang Jaya and Sepang.

"This has prompted many to question whether Khir has a hand in all these unethical, unprofessional and lop-sided business dealings and decisions," he said

He added that as the leader of Malaysia's sole state with developed status, Khir should be on the forefront of promoting a "free and fair market environment".