A company named in the declassified documents released by the Selangor government last month has come forward to refute allegations made against it.

Delpuri Corporation Sdn Bhd (DCSB) director Ahmad Nasaruddin Othman, in a statement, said the company was distressed by malicious and false accusations.

DCSB, the contractor for the Squatter Resettlement Scheme in Bukit Botak in 1996, was blamed in the declassified documents for the project's failure.

Nasaruddin said DCSB was wrongly accused of abandoning the project that came to a halt when defiant squatters refused to vacate the land.

A senior official of DCSB who declined to be named said that the squatters had threatened the developers with violence, and they had no power to evict them.

"This was the sole responsibility of the Gombak Land Office, which failed to act, resulting in a loss of RM14 million to the developer.

khir toyo pc on khir toyo mansion 060709"(We) had no choice but to appeal to the then Selangor MB (Khir Toyo) (left) as the company was running out of resources," he said.

Nasaruddin said that Khir felt the problem could only be handled by the Selangor Economic and Development Corporation (PKNS), which was thus handed the project.

DCSB was one of three subcontractors under PKNS tasked to construct 592 semi-detached units as compensation for losses suffered by DCSB.

"The delays faced by PKNS were not caused by DCSB as stated in the declassified documents, but to the lengthy court case involving the squatters," said Nasaruddin.

‘We want the project to continue'

Nasaruddin vehemently refuted claims that DCSB had absconded with the deposit and land premium paid by titleholders.

The senior official of DCSB said they are "fighting with the Selangor government" to continue the project to enable them to service loans and recoup millions already spent.

She said that the government had ‘terminated' the project upon advice that PKNS would incur a potential loss of RM136.4 if there were any further delays.

Nasaruddin said the claim was "baseless and unacceptable" as it would mean RM206.4 million was needed to complete the project, awarded to DCSB at only RM70 million.

He added that independent assessment of work done by PKNS revealed that the RM48 million up till the termination "was too high a sum".

Nasaruddin also refuted claims that DCSB charged land titles to financial institutions, saying that this was impossible as the titles are held by the owners, and not DCSB.

He said it had also been wrongly stated that DCSB had failed to complete a transit home, as 160 squatters are currently residing in flats that cost the developer RM20 million.

The squatters have resided there for free since 2003, while other squatter families who opted out were given rental assistance of RM300 per month per household.

He said DCSB is not a politically-linked company, even though a member of its board of director, Sabihin Radiman, is a former district officer of Hulu Selangor.

The current shareholders took over the management in 1999 from a previous shareholder and are thus, unaware of how the project came to be procured three years earlier.

"(DCSB) is a private company owned by independent individuals and is not politically-linked as implied in the declassified papers," said Nasaruddin.