SHAH ALAM: The Selangor government has been accused of not being serious in its bid to take over Syarikat Pengeluaran Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (SPLASH).
Former Selangor Menteri Besar, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, said his successor, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, has instead been focusing on how to pay more than RM2.7 billion to the company and not on how to resolve the state’s water woes.
This, he claimed, was a clear case of negligence on the part of the state government, helmed by Azmin.
“By all accounts, the Selangor government should have acquired SPLASH by now. This failure on their part has allowed SPLASH shareholders to reap in even more profits, which has emboldened them to this extent.
“A Menteri Besar should fight for the people, but for some, their movements may be somewhat limited as they are ‘too full’,” he said in a statement today.
On Nov 5, 2016, BH Online had quoted Khalid as saying that the Selangor government hnad bnever offered
RM2.975 bilion for the quity takeover of SPLASH between 2008 and 2014, as claimed by Azmin in the Selangor state assembly sitting.
Khalid instead clarified that the claims were made to distract from the discussion on the decision by Azmin’s administration to pay RM2.7 billion to the company, which is 10 times more than the original offer of RM250.6 million.
Meanwhile, Khalid also took Selangor assembly Speaker Hannah Yeoh to task for blaming SPLASH the state’s ongoing water crisis, which has affected more than 500,000 homes in five areas in the Klang Valley.
He said he would like to remind Yeoh that he had once asked the state assembly to bring the water issue as well as the takeover of SPLASH to the state Select Committee on Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat).
Khalid said the motion was rejected outright by Yeoh.
“Maybe at the time she (Yeoh) felt that the issue was not that important.
“The crux here is that the people have to suffer thanks to leaders who adopt a nonchalant and irresponsible attitude,” he said.