GEORGE TOWN: Problem-riddled Seberang Prai Municipal Council is in hot water again.

The state government has instructed its president, Farizan Darus, to conduct an immediate investigation into how an official document could fall into the hands of state opposition chief Datuk Azhar Ibrahim.

A furious state Local Government Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow assured that disciplinary action would be taken against the culprit.

“I want to know how the document could end up in Azhar’s hands a week earlier than ours when in fact, I had requested for it from the council two weeks before that.

“I want to know which official took it upon himself or herself to release the document to the opposition ahead of us,” he said yesterday.

Chow was commenting on Azhar’s statement on Thursday that he received a week ago, a copy of the document, containing records of arrears owed by several Umno divisions and branches in the state to the council.

Chow only received the document on Wednesday.

It was reported that several Umno divisions and branches which own buildings have been identified as owing more than RM200,000 in unpaid assessments over the last 10 years.

They are the Umno Permatang Pauh division (RM25,548), Umno Pekan Darat branch (RM1,582), Umno Teluk Air Tawar branch (RM228) and Umno Bagan division (RM209,135).

Chow had since directed the council to recover the arrears as soon as possible.

The state government had made several exposes involving the council over the past few months, including the council’s massive deficit budget, whose reserves had declined from RM225 million in 2000 to RM6.4 million today.

Source: New Straits Times Online by Audrey Dermawan 2009/01/24
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Saturday/National/2462303/Article/index_html

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