Special committee to study business models for Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan

PUTRAJAYA (Aug 24): The Federal Territories (FT) Ministry has set up a special committee to study sustainable ways for Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan (YWP) to generate its own funding, said its minister Khalid Samad.

"Its current way of funding [through joint venture development and land sales] is not sustainable. The special committee will study ways [for the foundation] to generate funding. Potential businesses could be solid waste management or other businesses,” he told reporters after visiting the preview of Royal Floria Putrajaya 2018 at Anjung Floria in Presint 4 here today.

Yesterday, Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng said he will lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate 19 pieces of land owned by YWP and urged the FT Minister to freeze the transactions of these plots.

However, Khalid said the development plots owned by YWP have been transferred years ago for the purpose of joint venture development between the private sector and the foundation to generate income for the latter’s charity works.

He noted that the land transfers were done following administrative procedures including proposal submissions and applications for land.

However, he reckoned that this was not a sustainable way for YWP to keep it operations running.

"From now on, YWP should operate as a business vehicle to generate its own income,” he added.

On the 64 pieces of land that were being looked into by MACC, Khalid said some of the on-going developments on some of these parcels are still continuing while the commission conducts its investigations.

He stressed that if the comission discovered that the project is illegal, MACC will take action on the developer, regardless of the construction progress.