Some central bank officials “obviously” had knowledge that the RM2 billion paid by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to buy land from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) was diverted by the previous administration for other purposes, according to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“I only know that the land was sold to Bank Negara. What happens after that, I don’t know. Where the money went, I don’t know. But obviously somebody in BNM knows about it,” said Dr Mahathir on Wednesday (31 Oct), adding that the government is investigating.
He said this when asked about reports on the suspension of four central bank officials, pending investigations into the acquisition of land (Lot 41) adjacent to the BNM’s Sasana Kijang complex for about RM2.066 billion.
When the land transaction was done in January 2018, the central bank said the property will be used as the relocation site for the International Shari’ah Research Academy for Islamic Finance and the Global Islamic Finance University.
In 31 May 2018, BNM said the deal was mutually agreed with the Ministry of Finance (MoF), while Suleiman & Co carried out the independent property valuation.
Notably, the transaction became controversial as it was unusual for a government agency to purchase land from the federal government at market price. The selling prices of the 2.43 million sq ft land translates to RM823 psf.
Moreover, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng pointed out that in January 2018, the Finance Ministry under the control of the prior administration utilised the proceeds from the sale to partly repay 1MDB’s financial obligation to Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC).
Late last month, former PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak and previous secretary-general Tan Sri Irwan Sergiar Abdullah were jointly hit with six charges for redirecting government funds amounting to RM6.636 billion to repay the debts of 1MDB, which is embroiled in a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal.
Image source: The Edge News
This article was edited by the editorial team of PropertyGuru. To contact them about this or other stories email editorialteam@propertyguru.com.my
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