Last Thursday they agreed to give Worldwide Holdings Berhad's environment division Worldwide Landfills Sdn. Bhd. RM6.5 million of rate payers money to close an old landfill that the federal government had already spent RM2 million to close in 2004. And if this isn't crazy enough, on November 25th 2008, Mentri Besar, Khalid Ibrahim, gave a privately funded green tech company the go-ahead to rehabilitate the same landfill. Furthermore, a representative from that green tech company was instructed to attend Thursday's meeting, asked to sign the attendance register before the meeting started and was then barred from the meeting itself.
The landfill in question, Sg.Kembong, is the 85 acre site at Bukit Mahkota near Beranang, Selangor. Ever since the landfill was closed in 2004 there has been sporadic leachate contamination of the Bernanang and Semenyih rivers and this is currently being exacerbated by an illegal sand mining operation in the area which is eroding the river bank right back to the landfill.
CLEAR, the green tech company that M.B.Khalid appointed to clean up the site, have already contained the leachate away from the river and have started to mine the garbage to produce refuse derived fuel (RDF) which is used as a renewable energy source for steam turbines and cement kilns. Their Waste to Energy approach will leave the site clear of all garbage and contaminants so that it can be handed back to the state government for further development when their present 21-year lease runs out. The income CLEAR will get from the recoverable items plus RDF mined from the site allows them to offer this service free of charge to the Selangor government.
So why has the Selangor government now decided to give Worldwide Holdings Berhad RM6.5 million to close this site?
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Selangor State Finance officer, Mohd Arif Bin AB Rahman (left) is the chairman of Worldwide Holdings Berhad and the head of PKNS, Othman Bin Hj.Omar (right) is a director of that same company.
Or maybe it's because Exco members Hassan Mohd. Ali and Ronnie Liu who are respectively in charge of waste management and the local authorities, are not on the same page as the chief minister.
As for Worldwide Holdings Berhad, their track record isn't that great. The Selangor State Government gave them RM80 million to build a waste transfer station in Section 21 Shah Alam which was due to be completed in 2007 but is still not operating. Furthermore, Worldwide's method of closing landfills doesn't entail removing and re-using the waste in the way thatthe CLEAR approach does. Both the Taman Beringen and Bukit Hitam landfills, which have recently been closed by Worldwide, have just been covered with soil and landscaped with grass and shrubs. And they charge between RM2-5 million for this service whereas the CLEAR solution is free.
So what can we learn from this:
1. Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim is obviously concerned about his state and the people who live in
it. By approving the rehabilitation project with CLEAR he didn't spend a single sen and in
exchange Selangor state get a pristine piece of land.
2. Exco members Hassan Mohd. Ali, and Ronnie Liu are incredibily inefficient or are deliberately
disrespecting their MB's authority. Either way this needs to be addressed.
3. Mohd Arif Bin AB. Rahman (State Finance Office) and Othman Bin Haji Omar (head of PKNS)
are using their positions to award contracts to themselves.
Selangor has 20 landfills waiting to be closed. Surely the decision as to whether to pay around RM120 million of rate payer's money to a company like Worldwide to do this, or to go for the free option offered by companies like CLEAR is a no brainer, isn't it?
9 comments:
Phew! This piece is hot! Good work :-)
Yeah, time to rob the gravy train since PR knows for sure their days are numbered because of
a. they are guilty
b. they are stupid and
c. they are guilty and stupid too.
More to come from PANJIHITAM61 !
Taman Beringin Landfill was operated by Alam Flora and landfill closure work was awarded to Cypark.
Air Hitam Landfill was operated by Worldwide hence landfill closure work was done by Worldwide.
The new waste transfer station at Seksyen 21, Shah Alam is under Ministry of Housing and yet to be given to the State/MBSA.
How about Toyol 24 million Balinese Palace. Did you find out how a dentist can have 24 million palace and free trip to Disney land?
Yes there is more than that meets the eyes. This is a clear case of robbery of the RAKYATS money.
Good one Ecowarriorz. Strip them naked.
Shalom, Admiral Tojo
Many questions remain to be asked
1. What is the state of an old landfill closure today which the federal government had spent RM2million for it rehabilitation? You should not leave that open.
2. Did CLEAR do a good job? Very often "free" becomes expensive because the company main interest is "RDF" and not land rehabilitation. It is naive to assume that an unknown company will clear all traces of contamination as it is cheap to extract 90% of the contaminants but not the final 10%. This 10% will still render the land un-rehabilitated.
3. Mining of garbage can mean extracting the metallic content and dumping true rubbish back to the landfills. Perhaps the new Selangor government was earlier naive to be deceived by the "eco-friendly recycling" company.
4. If CLEAR takes 21 years to hand back the land to Selangor, the state would lose much more than the RM6.5 million spent today to rehabilitate the land.
5. You did not mention that the owner of Worldwide holdings is PKNS. ie. the Selangor state government.
[url]http://www.whb.com.my/[/url]. You are insinuating that Selangor State Finance officer, Mohd Arif Bin AB Rahman as chairman of Worldwide Holdings Berhad and the head of PKNS, Othman Bin Hj.Omar as a director of that same company are using their positions to award contracts to themselves.
Who are you working for? CLEAR?
Shalom
- mikewang
Ecowarrior,
Your investigations on the landfill in Selangor pose more questions than answers. For one,
Trace back the source of the company and find whether it is a state-owned company or belongs to private individuals.
Also, those landfills that were closed earlier and now needs to be closed again, did you check why the landfilss need further closing ?
Who were those individuals named by you ? Were they employees of state-owned companies or directors of their own compay i.e Worldwide Holdings ?
Good journalism gives us a complete picture of the situation rather than having some personal agenda.
you have dug but apparently not deep enough. too many questions arises. but first question, do you know who owns worldwide??
Air Hitam Landfill closure just by dirt and grass??WTF?!have you ever heard about generation of electricity from landfill gas..there is only one such thing in MALAYSIA and it is located at Air Hitam Lanfill. The engine that generate around 300 to 1000kwh electricity is operated and maintained by Worlwide.there is a proper landfill gas collecting system, caping and leachate treatment plant at the site.I believe should stop writing and learn history and achievement of your own country.
J.Reira-Pakistan-UKM
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