KPKT to investigate PR1MA, says Zuraida

KUALA LUMPUR (July 6): The Housing and Local Government Ministry (KPKT) will initiate an investigation into the business activities, dealings and performance of the 1Malaysia People’s Housing Programme’s (PR1MA), minister Zuraida Kamaruddin (pictured) told a publication today.

She told the Malaysian Reserve that PR1MA’s management failed to meet its targets “despite all the assistance and facilities accorded to their projects by the previous federal government and most state governments”.   

“PR1MA will be handed over to my ministry soon. After that, I will definitely conduct a due diligence into the agency.

“I have done some studies and been briefed by some former officials in PR1MA. In a nutshell, I think the total picture about PR1MA was mismanagement. There, they could not deliver what was assigned to them,” Zuraida told the business daily.

She also said that PR1MA constructed just 11,000 homes compared with its set target of half a million residential units to be delivered by the end of this year.

“The gap is huge…less than 5% of the original target. So, definitely there must be something wrong there, given more than the money that has been allocated to them is huge,” The Malaysian Reserve reported her as saying.

She also had this ominous warning: “That is why we have to do the due diligence once the agency is placed under the ministry. If it is meant for the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) to step in, let it be.”

PR1MA Malaysia was established to plan, develop, construct and maintain high-quality housing with lifestyle concepts for middle-income households in key urban centres.

Its homes are priced between RM100,000 to RM400,000.

PR1MA is open to all Malaysians with a monthly household income of between RM2,500 to RM15,000.