The MP for Petaling Jaya Utara said there was no real reason for the ministry of finance (MoF) to conceal these details as both companies were wholly-owned subsidiaries of MoF.
“There is only one reason for invoking this confidentiality clause, and it has nothing to do with the purported ‘commercial considerations’. It is to cover up the fact that MoF paid over-the-top to buy back a fraction of the prime land it had sold at bargain basement prices to 1MDB in 2010,” he said in a statement today.
Pua said he had asked Finance Minister Najib Razak, in the previous sitting of parliament, to state the cost and size of the land in TRX which Aroma Teraju acquired from 1MDB in 2015.
He said Najib replied on July 31 that the information was protected by a confidentiality clause between the buyer and the seller.
This, the DAP national publicity secretary said, was “ridiculous” as both companies were wholly-owned by the MoF, which was answerable to parliament and the public.
“This is especially since the price of a piece of land is in no way a threat to national security, and the information is certainly not protected by the Official Secrets Act.”
So, in the current sitting of parliament, Pua asked Najib why the size of the land and the purchase price could not be disclosed even though both companies were owned by the MoF.
Najib replied that this was because of the confidentiality clause in the agreement to protect the commercial considerations of both parties, and that the terms were consistent with the key terms used in the market among other similar transactions.
Describing Najib’s reply as “utter nonsense”, the DAP MP said the prime minister had chosen to ignore the fact that Aroma Teraju and 1MDB were wholly-owned by MOF.
“What is the purpose of this secrecy when both parties in the agreement are owned by the government?” Pua asked.
He said, based on 1MDB’s 2011 financial statements, the 70 acre TRX land was acquired from the government for RM194 million, or approximately RM64 per square feet in 2010.
“However, in the same year that Aroma Teraju acquired the above-mentioned piece of land from 1MDB, the latter also sold other parcels of TRX land to other government-related institutions.
“Lembaga Tabung Haji acquired 1.6 acres for RM188.5 million or more than RM2,800psf. Affin Bank, a subsidiary of Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT), acquired 1.25 acres for RM255 million or nearly an eye-popping RM4,700psf.
“If Aroma Teraju had paid anywhere near the prices paid by Tabung Haji or Affin Bank, it would mean that Malaysian tax-payers have been ripped off beyond their wildest imagination.
“Very simply, 1MDB purchased land from the government at RM64psf and sold a fraction of the piece of undeveloped land back to the government five years later at an exhorbitant thousands of ringgit per square feet.”
Pua challenged Najib, 1MDB, and its CEO Arul Kanda to deny his allegations with facts and figures.
“Otherwise, it would merely confirm that the secrecy over a simple sales and purchase agreement between two government entities is really to cover up another one of the daylight robberies against the Malaysian taxpayers to bail out the debt-stricken 1MDB.”