State executive councillor for housing, town and country planning, Jagdeep Singh, said Rahman should not try to cloud the issue after he himself had earlier come under fire for granting Extension of Time (EOT) for a housing project during the ministerial tenure.
In a series of postings on Twitter, Rahman today uploaded a screen grab of a page from the 2015 Auditor-General’s report that showed Penang gave EOT for the project.
It also listed four other infrastructure projects in the state granted extensions of between 293 and 372 days each.
He said the Penang government could have gotten compensation from the contractors and used it for other projects to benefit the public.
“The waived compensation could be utilised for other public projects for Penangites. That means Penangites lost out,” he said.
He also goaded Penang deputy chief minister P Ramasamy and DAP MP Tony Pua to deny that the Penang government also granted EOTs.
Ramasamy and Pua had criticised Rahman over the matter following the High Court’s ruling on Monday against developer BHL Construction Sdn Bhd over the 12-month extension granted by the ministry that led to house buyers not being able to claim compensation.
Jagdeep told FMT the EOT granted under Rahman was done when there were sale and purchase agreements (SPAs) for the new condominium project.
He added that under the Housing Development (Control & Licensing) Act, 1966, the granting of an EOT, when allowable, came under the ministry.
“State governments cannot issue an EOT for a SPA. Don’t cloud the issue. The issue here is about the granting of EOT for a SPA.
“The EOT granted by the Penang government which Rahman is talking about has nothing to do with any SPA.”
Rahman, who is now a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, had explained that an extension is only given by the ministry after stringent checks and if a developer faces delays due to circumstances beyond its control.
“The most important and difficult questions we face are if the housing project will be abandoned by the developer should an extension not be granted, and will the house buyers be in a worse off position should that happen,” he said.