Hold public hearing on water restructuring cost, Khalid tells Selcat

Former Selangor menteri besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim proposed that the Select Committee on Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) holds a public hearing to reveal the actual cost used by the state government in implementing the restructuring of the water industry in the state.

Abdul Khalid (Independent-Port Klang) suggested the matter so that the people could understand in-depth the takeover process apart from correcting the allegations by Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali that there were shortcomings in the earlier agreement when he (Abdul Khalid) was leading Selangor.

"I thought if possible the Speaker should compel Selcat to discuss in public matters hidden which were incorrectly claimed by the MB to show our transparency.

"I want the allegations that the agreement made by the previous government was purportedly wrong, and we want to reply and discuss so that the people would understand the matter better," he said in a supplementary question on state government reserve which was raised by Mohd Haslin Hassan (PAS-Tanjung Sepat) at the state assembly seating here today.

Earlier, Mohamed Azmin in replying to a question by Mohd Haslin, told the assembly as at Aug 13, the Selangor reserves stood at RM3.73 billion compared to RM3.2 billion on Dec 31 last year.

The Menteri Besar explained that the use of the reserves would focus solely on development projects and not operation cost.

Abdul Khalid later stood up to ask if the state government was still maintaining that the value of the takeover of water concession companies involved RM2 billion while RM7.65 billion was the liability of the companies involved.

The Port Klang state assemblyman also defended the original overall takeover cost including the cost of providing free water at RM150 million a year.

"It is important that the members of the house know the cost (free water gift) which we approved since 2012 will be retained so that the state reserves will not be affected by any increase in the water negotiation," he said.

Mohamed Azmin later said the negotiated cost of water industry restructuring made by Abdul Khalid earlier led to him (Mohamed Azmin) inheriting a host of shortcomings which took place during Abdul Khalid's administration including negligence in finalising the water industry, among others state assets to be handed over to the federal government.

At the same time, the Menteri Besar said RM7.65 billion were the actual liabilities acquired via concession company bonds at that time and the bonds were undertaken by the concession companies to build several water treatment plants including Sungai Selangor Phase 1 (SSP1) and Phase 2 (SSP2).

Mohamed Azmin also accused Abdul Khalid of announcing an 18 percent hike in water tariff during his tenure as menteri besar to which Abdul Khalid denied and asked Mohamed Azmin to provide the facts to prove his allegations.