PAC to probe HRD Corp, demands govt to declassify land swap deal report

KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will initiate a probe on the Human Resource Development Corp (HRD Corp).

However, it is unknown what had prompted the probe into the agency which was under the purview of the Human Resources Ministry.

PAC chairman Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin said the topic of the proceedings on the agency that was previously known as Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) would be determined later.

“PAC will initiate proceedings on the issue in the second week of the third meeting of the 15th Parliament,” she said in a press conference in Parliament on Thursday (Sept 14).

On a separate matter, Mas Ermieyati said the PAC was also seeking a response from Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said on the declassification of the report on the controversial Defense Ministry (Mindef) land swap deal.

The report in question is the Public Governance, Procurement and Finance (JKSTUPKK) report.

“PAC had sent a letter on the matter on June 13, 2023 and we received a response from Datuk Seri Azalina on June 27 2023.

“In the letter, the minister said that the matter will be scrutinised and reviewed by the Attorney General’s Chambers before any decision is made by the government,” she said.

However, it had been three months and the government had yet to respond to the PAC with a decision.

As such, PAC was calling on the government to expedite the declassification of the report as it was already tabled to the PAC of the 14th Parliament on April 2, 2019 and Nov 16, 2020.

“This will allow the PAC to review the matter as the government had incurred RM500mil in losses in addition to the effect on its strategic defence position,” she said.

She said the PAC would start the proceedings on the land swap deal once the report was declassified.

The land swap deal began in 2012, involving a 38.04ha army camp in Kinrara, Selangor, the construction of an air force facility in Sendayan, and the construction of an army camp in Port Dickson, both in Negri Sembilan.

However, in 2016, the proposal to construct an army camp in Port Dickson was replaced with the proposal to set up the Paloh camp.

In 2020, the then PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh said the issue was brought to PAC’s attention following a briefing by the special investigation committee on the (JKSTUPKK)

report after investigating 16 cases of land swap cases involving 2,923 acres (1,183ha) of government land valued at RM4.8bil.

He said the PAC was informed that one of the issues that surfaced in the land swap was related to government losses due to the inconsistent methods used to determine the value of the land and political considerations that outweigh defence interests.