RM2m drainage contribution was not misappropriated: Penang govt

GEORGE TOWN: The Penang government has shot down talks that some RM2 million of drainage contributions from developers earmarked for flood mitigation projects were squandered.
Penang Local Government, Traffic Management and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow (pix) said the money was not misappropriated.
He said what happened was the state did not receive the money from the Seberang Perai Municipal Council contrary to the state's policy of having such collections channelled to the state.
Chow said it was the practice of the council to collect the money and keep it instead of channelling the monies to the state government who would decide on flood mitigation measures to be implemented.
He said the council has been practising such procedure since the 1990s and this was raised in the Auditor General’s Report 2016.
He said the state has since instructed the council to do the necessary and all existing monies would be transferred to the state while new monies collected would also be channelled to the state.
“There is no misappropriation of any drainage contributions,” he said in a press conference today with Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
The matter was raised by reporters during Lim's visit to the Air Itam Dam today.
Flood issues are currently in the spotlight after Penang suffered severe flooding on Sept 15 after a storm lashed the state.