Selangor MB must explain to the Auditor General and Malaysian public for ignoring illegal billboards

Dr Mohd Khir Toyo cannot be keeping mum on the issue forever.

I have made a police report against the Menteri Besar of Selangor over the privatisation of billboards inSelangor based on a series of reports carried in The Sun on Saturday, Aug 19,2006 at the Petaling Jaya police station. The police have yet to respond or investigate on my report.

I have issued a statement a day earlier, entitled "No More Free and Fair market in Selangor?", demanding the MB to come clean on granting monopoly right on outdoor advertising to a private company, Bernam Kiara Sdn Bhd.

Today, the front page story of The Sun reports that the Auditor General has slammed the Selangor state government for ignoring illegal billboards.

The AG claims that the Selangor land offices have failed to act on billboards which were built without Temporay Occupation Licenses (TOLs). I have raised similar questions on the same matter in my statement on Aug 18,2006, arguing that land rights must be obtained from the land office before erecting any billboards.

We will make a new police report following the report in The Sun today.

Here's the story from The Sun...


Land offices failed to act
Giam Say Khoon

PETALING JAYA: The Auditor-General's (A-G) Office has taken to task Selangor land offices for not acting against outdoor advertising companies which built billboards on state land without Temporary Occupation Licences (TOL).

In a report on the activities of Selangor's departments and agencies released in Parliament today (Sept 5, 2006), A-G Tan Sri Ambrin Buang said failure to collect TOL fees has indirectly affected the state's income.

The report said the offices did not fully adhere to rules and procedures when processing TOL applications, but did not spell out where the shortcomings were.

Also, it charged that there was no coordination between the state government, the land offices and the local authorities when it came to ensuring billboard licences were issued only after the companies could produce their TOL.

The statistics provided in the report was an eye-opener:

> a total of 475 TOL applications were received by the state's land offices from 2003 to 2005, but only 38 applications were approved, 79 rejected and 358 delayed; and

> audited records of advertising licence from six local authorities of Hulu Langat, Hulu Selangor, Klang, Kuala Langat, Kuala Selangor and Petaling showed that 527 billboards were built although only 38 TOLs were approved.

The A-G report explained that the incident occurred because advertising companies did not realise the need to obtain a TOL even after they have obtained a billboard licence from the local authorities.

The lack of cooperation between the land office and local authorities on billboard management has contributed to this problem.

All it would take is for the local authority to insist on TOL being produced before a licence can be approved.

The issue of illegal billboards has been the subject of many headlines in newspapers of late. There was also criticism that Petaling Jaya had turned into a billboard jungle.

On July 12 (2006), theSun reported that the apathetic attitude of local authorities had contributed to the mushrooming of such billboards. For instance, letters had been sent to a billboard company to remove a total of 77 illegal billboards in Petaling Jaya since mid last year, but no action has been taken so far.

The local authorities had said it was costly to remove such billboards.