Akmal said it was not surprising to see Shahidan being appointed as Perbadanan PR1MA Malaysia’s (PR1MA) chairman as it was part of the “scheme of things” under the Perikatan Nasional government.

He said the PR1MA website was updated much earlier reflecting the Umno MP’s appointment.

Yesterday, Shahidan was announced as chairman of PR1MA, with a minister saying his vast experience in governance was needed to boost the agency’s performance.

Akmal, who is also the Johor Bahru MP, said PR1MA’s issues have largely remained unresolved all these years, despite having housing and local government minister Zuraida Kamaruddin as the minister in charge of the agency for the past three years.

For instance, he said, there were inconsistencies in Zuraida’s parliamentary replies concerning cancelled PR1MA projects.

“On Oct 17, 2019, the minister stated that 56 phases of development projects under PR1MA worth RM9.98 billion had been cancelled. However, on Dec 7, 2020, the same minister had said 32 projects had been cancelled,” he said.

Akmal said Zuraida should reveal how much compensation had been paid to developers as a result of the 32 cancelled projects.

He noted that a figure of RM172 million had been mentioned and that there were a number of abandoned or late-delivery projects by PR1MA in Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Johor, among other places.

He cited the example of PR1MA Residensi in Tebrau, Johor, which was supposed to have been handed over to buyers in 2018 but had yet to be carried out.

He said buyers who had been denied their homes or given their units late ought to be compensated as part of the liquidated ascertained damages.