Selangor To Make Water MoU Public Next Week

SHAH ALAM: The Selangor government will make public the contents of the water agreement it signed with the federal government next week as promised, Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said today.

Khalid said the Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Maximus Ongkili had agreed in principle for Selangor to make the memorandum public.

He said the state had to undergo certain procedures as required under its Freedom of Information Act before the document could be released.

He, however, declined to confirm the authenticity of a MoU document revealed by PKR strategist Rafizi Ramli yesterday, adding that the state did not approve the release of the said document.

“We are only interested in releasing our own documents,” he said Khalid indirectly dismissed Rafizi’s claims that only a number of items in the MoU, such as the Langat II Water Treatment Plant, were irrevocable.

“The decision has been made by the state, you (reporters) should read the whole document,” he told a press conference after the weekly executive council meeting.

He said the signing of the MoU had nothing to do with his recent out-of-court settlement with Bank Islam on a shares dispute worth RM67 million.

He also refused to name the PKR leader whom he had claimed might wish to alter the water deal if the person knew about the deal earlier.

No water increase for three years

Selangor inked the MoU with Putrajaya last Wednesday to allow the federal government to build the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plan in exchange for the state to take over four water concessionaires.

The MoU marked the end of six years of intensive horse-trading between the two sides since Selangor announced its intention to restructure the state’s water industry and assets.

Many Selangor PKR leaders, such as Rafizi and Anwar Ibrahim, were, however, kept in dark over the MoU and had since been questioning the deal.

Khalid said last Saturday that the contents of the MoU was irrevocable and binding, as he had specifically asked for the word “irrevocable” to be written in there.

Meanwhile, Khalid also announced that the federal and state governments had agreed to sign a yet-to-be-drafted agreement which would detail the plan of the water restructuring exercise.

He said the proposed agreement would eleborate on issues such as future water tariffs and estimated revenue after the exercise.

He added that the proposed agreement stated that there would be no increase in water tariff for the next three years.

Source: FreeMalaysiaToday