The Penang state government will freeze 1MDB’s purchase of 234 acres of land in Air Itam until there is “accountability and transparency” with regard to the allegation-riddled firm, said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

This comes in the wake of the state legislative assembly passing a motion to block any state transaction with 1MDB last Friday.

1MDB had purchased the Air Itam land for RM1.38 billion before the 13th general election.

Lim said the state is blocking the transaction because it is not confident that 1MDB would facilitate the building of 9,999 homes for the 3,000 families who would be evicted.

“There is public concern on whether the promises are practical and can be fulfilled given the high investment and the fact that (1MDB) does not own 100 percent of the land,” he added in a media statement.

Describing the move as a matter of  “public interest”, Lim said the freeze will continue until 1MDB provides a full explanation of the scandal and its impact on the rakyat.

He added that the wisdom of passing the motion include the Penang government’s plan to distance itself from a company mired in alleged misappropriation and abuse of power.

He cited the case of the Singapore’s directive to BSI Bank to shut down, where its merchant status was withdrawn, pending investigations by the authorities.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore fined BSI US$13.3 million on 41 grounds of “serious breaches of anti-money laundering requirements, poor management oversight of the bank’s operations and gross misconduct by some of the bank’s staff”.

“This raises the question of the fate of 1MDB assets in the form of units in BSI worth US$940 million (RM3.8 billion),” Lim pondered.

“Clearly, the closure of BSI will greatly impact 1MDB shares in the commercial bank,” Lim added.

Lim said the 1MDB scandal cannot be closed until Putrajaya clears its name by taking several actions.

These include revealing the Auditor-General’s Report on the scandal and calculating the negative impact of the cost of failing to settle its debts in the form of interest payment amounting to RM50 million for last month and early this month.

Lim added that Putrajaya also need to justify why no action was taken on those responsible for the alleged massive scandal although other countries have acted on the said allegations.

“What is the Malaysian government trying to hide by not revealing the Auditor-General’s Report  to the public?” asked the DAP secretary-general.