Buzz Sociopolitics Malaysia: RM68m Paya Indah Wetlands Fiasco: Need for Accountability

RM68m Paya Indah Wetlands Fiasco: Need for Accountability

December 18, 2011

http://www.thesundaily.my

RM68m Paya Indah Wetlands Fiasco: Need for Accountability

Posted upon eighteen Dec 2011 07:26pm
Last updated upon eighteen Dec 2011 08:50pm

by R. Nadeswaran aka citizen-nades

"FOR a final 20 years Muralee Menon has been actively concerned in large-scale commercial operation supervision portfolios as well as start-ups. In a final twelve years he has supposing his imagination as chairman/CEO levels, as entrepreneur/investor as well as as national adviser. Amongst his portfolios, Menon was a part of of a National Healthcare Financing Committee in Malaysia. Besides building organisational systems as well as infusing innovation, his design is building knowledge-based healthcare organisations through evidence-based care, implementation of integrated caring pathways as well as uptake of ICT through clinical workflows. Menon provides his imagination in these areas opposite Asia.

"In a final 6 years as CEO, he led a development as well as completion of a 250-bed tertiary sanatorium in Malaysia."

THE correctness of a above which is reproduced word for word from a pamphlet produced by a Libyan British Business Council (LBBC) in conjunction with a visit of a commission to Tripoli final year to foster healthcare partnerships cannot be verified. After a tumble of a Gadaffi regime, British businesses as well as even politicians have been put in rather embarrassing situations over their past dealings. This stirred a source to send over a copy of a booklet, citing "Malaysian presence" as well as "links to Libya".

The beating of drums over a National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) upon a ! purporte d misuse of supervision supports as well as AirAsia's "war" over a increase in airfield taxation stirred a re-look of what we initial wrote in 2007 about a Paya Indah Wetlands, especially after a examination of a booklet.

What has a LBBC got to do with a wetlands project? It is true which Menon was "actively concerned in large-scale commercial operation supervision portfolios as well as start-ups" as well as a Paya Indah plan was a single of them.

Paya Indah Wetlands: A Dismal Failure

A colossal total of RM68 million in taxpayers' income was supposing for this plan in 2001 as well as today, it is a station relic of waste, inefficiency as well as above all, an additional illustration of what Public Accounts Committee chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid not long ago described as "weak supervision of a government".

So shouldn't Menon as well as Datuk Ahmad Talib, who have been listed as directors of a Malaysian Wetlands Foundation, be hold underneath obligation for a income as well as a failure of a project? When it opened, it was flaunted as a premier eco-tourism attraction. What stays is a reflection of a sadness described by Azmi.

Four years ago, we raised these questions in this mainstay as well as it is inestimable repeating them: Doesn't any one be concerned which RM68 million belonging to a people has left down a drain? Isn't any one making an attempt to recover at least part of a money? Shouldn't a authorities be using a full brunt of a law to prosecute those responsible? Shouldn't someone be means to tell us how as well as where a income went? Shouldn't a board of directors be underneath obligation for this colossal loss?

For good measure, we pronounced which serie! s of vis its to unfamiliar lands underneath a stratagem of "helping a oppressed" is not starting to atone for a sins committed locally. No volume of "doing good" as well as a broadside which accompanies it is starting to erase a actuality which public income was misused right underneath our noses.

In a march of a civil suit against a foundation, a High Court judge remarked: "(All) gone down together with Wetlands All a companies dealing with it Semua bungkus (folded)." Shouldn't this judicial pronouncement, let alone a expos by this newspaper, prompt a authorities into action? Pemandu as well as associated agencies tried to pooh-pooh a Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International with unconvincing arguments, though when no movement is taken when supervision supports go to waste, can any one perceive it differently?

Malaysian Public need to know what happened

Couldn't adults be told how which RM68 million was used or misused? To a authorities, here's what Wetlands International Asia Pacific senior manager executive Faizal Parish who was concerned in formulating a project's master plan told me approach behind in 2007: "If it were up to us, a price would be minimal from a couple of hundred thousand ringgit to a couple of million. RM68 million is approach as well most to spend upon a park. We were focused upon a natural resources of a wetlands as an attraction, though there were others some-more focused upon manufacture elaborate structures."

Politicians upon both sides of a order have left into overdrive over a N! FC plan though little courtesy has been paid to other projects where costs have escalated for no valid reason or a plan has not taken off. Is it since Menon was a "adviser" to a cupboard cabinet upon sports or since Ahmad is now a executive in a media conglomerate?

Let me reiterate which we am not accusing any one of any wrongdoing. What is indispensable is an open avowal of what as well as because a plan went wrong. It is only proper which both these people, in accordance with a statutory mandate of them as directors as well as in a public interest, tell us everything. As it involves public money, this positively would not be asking as well much. Or will Pemandu as well as a crime NKRA suggest a plausible explanation upon a movement or lack of it?

R. Nadeswaran wants to remind a authorities which issues raised in a past should not be swept underneath a carpet. He is theSun's UK correspondent formed in London as well as can be reached at: citizen-nades@thesundaily.com