Perak paid RM320,000 in 'MB vs MB' case
Published: Apr 11, 2014 12:37 AM | Updated: Apr 11, 2014 12:24 PM
The Perak government paid over RM300,000 in legal fees to private firms for the case related to the BN takeover in 2009 and the subsequent constitutional crisis.
The Perak government paid over RM300,000 in legal fees to private firms for the case related to the BN takeover in 2009 and the subsequent constitutional crisis.
“The total legal fees paid by the state government to lawyers who handled the Federal Court civil appeal... is RM324,053.16 in professional fees,” a written reply to the Perak legislative assembly yesterday read.
The reply is to DAP's Canning assemblyperson Wong Kah Woh who asked what the state paid for the case - better known as the 'MB vs MB' case - involving ousted Perak MB Nizar Jamaluddin (in yellow) and successor Zambry Abdul Kadir.
According to Wong, the hefty payment to private law firms is “wrong on at least two counts”- because the state had engaged private lawyers and because this is not the only case in the constitutional crisis.
Wong said that there are four other cases pending on the same matter - a judicial review (Nizar vs Zambry), a civil suit between Zambry and former assembly speaker V Sivakumar, and two other suits between Sivakumar and successor A Ganesan.
He estimated that if one case costs the state about RM300,000 then five could see costs go as high as RM1.5 million.
He also said that the norm would have been to engage the services of the state legal advisor, as Zambry was sued in his capacity as MB, and private firms should not have been engaged at exorbitant fees.
“The BN state government owes all Perakians an answer to whether the legal bills for all the above cases were footed by the public or not. And if yes, how much of the public funds were involved,” he said.
“The total legal fees paid by the state government to lawyers who handled the Federal Court civil appeal... is RM324,053.16 in professional fees,” a written reply to the Perak legislative assembly yesterday read.
The reply is to DAP's Canning assemblyperson Wong Kah Woh who asked what the state paid for the case - better known as the 'MB vs MB' case - involving ousted Perak MB Nizar Jamaluddin (in yellow) and successor Zambry Abdul Kadir.According to Wong, the hefty payment to private law firms is “wrong on at least two counts”- because the state had engaged private lawyers and because this is not the only case in the constitutional crisis.
Wong said that there are four other cases pending on the same matter - a judicial review (Nizar vs Zambry), a civil suit between Zambry and former assembly speaker V Sivakumar, and two other suits between Sivakumar and successor A Ganesan.
He estimated that if one case costs the state about RM300,000 then five could see costs go as high as RM1.5 million.
He also said that the norm would have been to engage the services of the state legal advisor, as Zambry was sued in his capacity as MB, and private firms should not have been engaged at exorbitant fees.
“The BN state government owes all Perakians an answer to whether the legal bills for all the above cases were footed by the public or not. And if yes, how much of the public funds were involved,” he said.
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