Exco members protecting sand thieves, says Khir

By Muda Mohd Noor - Free Malaysia Today

SHAH ALAM: Sand thieves in Selangor are operating under the protection of politicians holding office in the state administration, former menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo said today.
He alleged that Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim was aware of this but had chosen to ignore it to protect his political interest.
“The gang or syndicate has been flagrant in its activities because there are members of the executive council who are close to them,” he said.
“I have brought up the matter on several occasions in the state assembly,” he added.
Khir, who is opposition leader in the assembly, told FMT the illegal mining involved thousands of acres of land.
The issue was revived recently by PKR's Kapar MP, S Manikavasagam, who has since lodged a police report alleging corruption in the state-owned Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd (KSSB), which has interest in sand mining.
The company has dismissed the allegation as untrue and said it would sue Manikavasagam for defamation.
Khir said the culprits had been stealing sand from state-owned mines in Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor, Kuala Langat and Sepang and that they had been doing it for about two years.
Public assets
Under his tenure as menteri besar, he said, the state prohibited the collection of sand from mining areas in order to preserve public assets.
“We caught a lot of sand thieves and charged them in court,” he said. “About 150 mechanical sand-diggers were seized.
“Nowadays, sand is being stolen every day and not a single lorry has been seized and no one has been charged.
“I suspect certain leaders from a certain party in Pakatan Rakyat are protecting the culprits.”
Khir also questioned the state’s decision to appoint a company to issue sand-mining licences, saying this was the job of the district land offices, the land and mines department and a state executive committee.
He added that Khalid should suspend KKSB chief executive officer Ramli Abdul Majid from his job so that he would not be able to conceal evidence.
He called on the menteri besar to allow the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the case, saying Selangor legislative watchdog Select Committee on Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat), which Khalid said would conduct an inquiry, had no power to prosecute.
He said the state was losing RM145 million a year because of the sand theft; it was making only RM5 million annually from sand mining instead of the RM150 million it projected.
He said he feared that Selangor would one day be an importer of sand if the illegal activities were allowed to continue.