GEORGE TOWN: Penang Barisan Nasional chief Datuk Zainal Abidin Osman has produced a document which he claims proves that the Bayan Mutiara land sale was not done via open tender.

He has asked Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to keep his word and retire from politics.

At a press conference yesterday, Lim had offered to retire from politics if it could be proven that the Bayan Mutiara land sale was not done via open tender.

He had challenged Zainal Abidin and Kota Belud MP Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan to retreat from politics if they could not prove that the sale of the land was not done through open tender.

Zainal Abidin produced the document, which was an announcement by Ivory Properties Group Berhad to the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange on Nov 11 last year, at a press conference at Menara Umno here.

“On the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) website, it is stated that the closing date for the open tender of the Bayan Mutiara project was Dec 31, 2010.

“However, it is clearly stated in this document that Ivory only submitted an application to the PDC to buy and develop the land on March 3, 2011,” he said.

“Until today, the Chief Minister has not revealed how many had entered for the open tender, who evaluated the open tender, who is in the tender committee, and what is the tender process,” he said.

Abdul Rahman said Lim should reply to the questions and not resort to political mud-slinging.

“Lim must understand that it’s not just about the price but because of the documents Ivory submitted to Bursa Malaysia that stated the price of the land was derived after negotiations between the company, CMI (Chief Minister Incorporated) and PDC, which contradicts his claim that it was done via open tender,” he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Donald Lim said Guan Eng should not use a valuation by the Finance Ministry in 2009 as an excuse in the controversial sale of the land.

“He must get a new valuation for the year the land is sold,” he said.

On Wednesday, Guan Eng had said that the RM200 per sq ft reserve price for the land was much higher than the value set by the ministry’s Valuation and Services Department Department in November 2009, which he claimed had put the price as “not even worth RM150.”

SOURCE: The Star