The Malacca Development Board (PKNM), which is in the centre of allegations over kickbacks from a RM4.05 million purchase of shop lots, refused to comment on the matter as the case is still under investigation.

In a statement to malaysiakini yesterday, PKNM managing director Zainal Abu said the board is not able to provide any information on the matter as the case is being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Agency.

Zainal was asked to respond to the confession by a former corporate advisor with a shopping complex in Malacca that the latter had colluded to milk RM607,500 in kickbacks from PKNM's purchase of three shop lots in Plaza Melaka Raya at an inflated price.

The corporate advisor Adam Yong Abdullah said the money was split between a top official of the Entrepreneurial Development and Cooperatives Ministry (KPUN), Malacca government officials and a broker who put the deal together.

Adam, who said he received RM50,000 from that deal, decided to expose the matter as an act of repentance following his conversion to Islam two years ago.

Former managing director of PKNM - Zaini Mohd Nor - who was in charge during the purchase also declined to comment on the allegation.

He said since he was no longer in PKNM, he is not in a position to speak on the matter.

Zaini also said he cannot recollect the transaction as "all the documents and records are with PKNM."

"PKNM made many purchases. I cannot be expected to remember any particular transaction," said Zaini, who now heads the Malacca Historical City Council, when contacted.

'Everything was legal'

Meanwhile, managing director of Plaza Melaka Raya Kelvin Tan said ACA officers had previously questioned him "many times on the details of the transaction" and "everything was found to be above board and legal."

Asked on the allegation that five percent of the RM4.05 million purchase was given as kickbacks to a top ministry official in PKUN, Tan denied knowledge of any impropriety in the purchase.

"I don't know the details of the transaction. Everything was handled by Adam himself. He wouldn't let us contact any of the people he was dealing with for the sale," he said.

Tan also denied that the RM607,500, which the shopping complex management paid to the person who served as a broker between Adam and the ministry, was out of the ordinary.

"Fifteen percent may be high, but we were very desperate at the time to sell the lots and we were willing to pay that amount. However, in the property business, it's normal to offer such procurement fees to those who can secure a sale. That kind of pay is negotiable," he said.

Tan also denied that RM4.05 million for the three ground-floor lots was exceptionally costly as the pricing of units vary in accordance to location and other factors.

Contacted later, Adam claimed that Tan "knew the ministry official was involved in the deal" and was to benefit personally from the purchase.

Adam also said he has proof that the price at which the shop lots were sold were doubly-inflated, citing documents of previous sales of comparable units in Plaza Melaka Raya.

According to him, three ground-floor units that PKNM bought before his employment at Plaza Melaka Raya cost between RM695,000 and RM697,000 each.

This is double the price of the lots sold in the last transaction, he pointed out.