8 theSun | TUESDAY NOVEMBER 25 2008

news without borders

23-storey hotel may
jeopardise heritage Abdullah and Mohd Hassan (extreme
right) with the recipients (third from
status, says Teng left) – Davidson, Datuk Seri Salleh
Mohd Nor of The Malaysian Nature
Society, Ungku Abdul Aziz, Prof C.T. Tan
GEORGE TOWN: The 23-storey (84m) hotel on Jalan Sultan from the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti
Ahmad Shah approved by the state government recently Malaya, and Khalid.
could possibly be the one to jeopardise George Town’s
Unesco World Heritage status.
Former state executive councillor for local govern-
ment Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan said yesterday the state
government and local council were aware of the height
restrictions in the heritage zone “even back in 2005”.
“That’s why this project by Bintang Holdings, under
Low Yat Group, was put on hold by the previous state
government and the decision incurred the wrath of Low
Yat Group executive chairman Tan Sri Low Yow Chuan,”
he said.
Quoting from newspapers clippings from June 2005,
in which Low said he had had enough of Penang after the
local authorities told him to scale down the project from
24 storeys to eight storeys, Teng said they had to follow
the heritage guidelines.
“Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said he was not aware of
the guidelines. How could it be when we had to follow the
guidelines in 2005?” he asked.
As for why the previous administration approved the
other three high-rise projects, Teng explained that the E &
O Hotel expansion project with a 84m height was approved
back in the early 1990s.

“As for the Rice Miller Boutique Hotel and the Boustead
Royale Bintang Hotel, both these projects with a 51.7m
height, were the same height as the neighbouring Bangu-
nan Syed Putra,” he said.
Furthermore, Dr Teng added, these three projects were
made known to Unesco when Prof David Lung, sent by the
World Heritage Committee, came to Penang to assess the
heritage value of George Town.
“Prof Lung was fully briefed on the three projects so the
inscription was made with the Unesco being fully aware of
these projects,” he said.
Dr Teng said it is the fourth project, the one by Bintang
Holdings, that could have affected George Town’s Unesco
World Heritage status as it was not made known to the
Unesco committee and it was approved after the visit by
Prof Lung.
Unesco’s regional adviser to Asia-Pacific, Richard
Engelhardt, had last week warned that Penang’s heritage
status may be affected due to four high-rise projects in the
conservation zone.
Three of the projects, E & O Hotel, Boustead and Rice
Miller, were approved by the previous state administration
while the fourth project by Bintang Holdings, was approved
only 10 days before the Unesco inscription under the new
state government.
Abdullah presents Merdeka Awards
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister
Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
honoured the inaugural recipients of
the Merdeka Awards at a presentation
ceremony at Dewan Filharmonik
Petronas here, yesterday.
The recipients recognised for their
contributions under five categories
are Royal Prof Ungku Abdul Aziz
Ungku Abdul Hamid (Education and
Community category), The Malaysian
Nature Society (Environment category),
The Nipah Encephalitis Team, from the
Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya
and Prof Datuk Dr Khalid Kadir (joint
recipients for the Health, Science and
Technology category) and Datuk Leslie
Davidson (Outstanding Contribution to
the People of Malaysia category).
There is no recipient for the
Outstanding Scholastic Achievement
category as the award’s nomination and
selection committee judged that none of
the short-listed candidates attained the
required threshold to be honoured.
The recipient of each category
received RM500,000 cash, a trophy and a
certificate from the prime minister, who
is also patron of the award.
The Merdeka Award was established
to recognise and reward individuals and
organisations that had made outstanding
contributions for the advancement
of Malaysia and its people in the five
BERNAMAPIX
categories.
Initiated by Petronas, ExxonMobil
and Shell, the Merdeka Award was
launched by Abdullah on Aug 27 last year
in conjunction with the country’s golden
jubilee. It was so named to celebrate the
true spirit of independence that drives
exceptional individuals or organisations
to push boundaries in their pursuit of
excellence.
The inaugural recipients of the award
were announced on Aug 21 this year
by the chairman of the Merdeka Award
Board of Trustees, Tan Sri Mohd Hassan
Marican, who is also Petronas’ group
chief executive officer and president.
– Bernama

‘Money didn’t disappear

but was spent on projects’
by Opalyn Mok
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
GEORGE TOWN: The Seberang Perai
Municipal Council’s (MPSP) RM225 mil-
lion reserves did not “disappear” but
were spent over the past eight years on
major and small projects for the benefit
of the people.
Former state executive councillor for
local government Datuk Dr Teng Hock
Nan said yesterday he wanted to put
the record straight that the money was
spent and had not “disappeared”.
He said the projects included:
» Construction and completion of two
markets in Kepala Batas and Kampung
Baru, Bukit Mertajam;
» Construction and completion of a
multi-purpose hall in Butterworth;
» Construction and completion of two
sports complexes in Kepala Batas and
Betik, Bukit Mertajam;
» Acquisition of land for infrastructure
development, including drainage and
community halls;
» Solid waste management, including
the building of sanitary landfill in Pulau
Buring following the closing of the dump
site in Ampang Jajar;
» House-to-house collection of solid
waste increased to four times a week
from three times previously;
» Small infrastructure projects identified
by the state assemblymen and submit-
ted to the council for implementation;
and
» Other projects in local communities
such as cleanliness campaigns, anti-
mosquito programmes, health and
environment educational programmes
and landscaping.
“Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s
statement likening the “disappearance’’
of the RM225 million reserves to that
of the magic of David Copperfield, as if
the funds had been siphoned through
improper means, was irresponsible and
edging towards defaming me,” Teng
told a press conference at the Gerakan
headquarters.
“Lim should stop making irresponsible
allegations and accusations against the
previous Barisan Nasional state govern-
ment and myself, something he has been
doing since March 8 this year.”
While stating that he is not saying the
way the reserve was depleted in such a
short period was right, Teng said the pre-
vious state government realised there
was imbalanced spending by MPSP.
“We conducted an internal audit to
find out and to find solutions for a more
balanced budget and also to find out
whether there have been any irregulari-
ties or mismanagement on the reserve
funds,” he said.
The internal audit was led by the
Penang state financial officer and it was
completed and the report ready early
this year.
“We could not take any follow-up
actions after the March 8 defeat,” he
said. Therefore, Teng said, the onus is
now on the current state government to
commission an independent auditor to
audit the accounts of the local authori-
ties immediately.
“I urge Lim to vet through all the
records and accounts of MPSP for the
past years,” he said, adding that Lim had
announced on April 2 this year to do so
after finding out that there has been a
reduction in the MPSP reserve. He then
called on Lim to make the audit report
public as it is an important issue.
“Even if it has to incur extra expendi-
ture to hire an independent auditor, Lim
still needs to do it,” he said.
Teng also suggested that the state
government find ways to improve the
local authorities’ financial position and if
necessary, to seek allocations from the
federal government.
“Gerakan will definitely work with
Lim to coordinate and assist in securing
these allocations,” he said.
When asked why the previous state
government did not take any steps when
MPSP had a deficit budget every year
over the last eight years, Teng replied
that it is usual for the council to have a
deficit budget.
“Previously, the local councils were
able to balance out their spending with
collections of fees from rezoning and ap-
proval of plans during the good times but
ever since the Asian economic crisis in
1997, revenue have decreased and that’s
why there were imbalanced spending
from then onwards,” he said.