ProtectKarpal, operating under Bandar Sri Pinang Pulau Pinang Residents’ Association (PBSP), today filed a formal complaint with the Penang Public Accounts Committee (PAC), seeking an urgent inquiry into the Jelutong landfill rehabilitation and coastal reclamation project.
The project comes under a 21 February 2020 joint development agreement between the Penang state government, the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) and PLB Engineering Berhad.
The complaint was filed because public records show a sharp change in project scope: PLB’s 2016 revised tender proposal contained zero coastal reclamation. But the 2020 agreement introduced “reclamation” while the 2025 environmental impact assessment displayed a 70-acre reclamation component.
The impact assessment was not approved by the Department of Environment (DoE) five consecutive times.
ProtectKarpal asks the constitutional oversight body to investigate a RM1bn project that has accumulated at least seven extensions of time since 2020, failed five consecutive environmental impact assessments, and may be seeking an eighth extension at the state executive council meeting on 20 May.
ProtectKarpal stresses that this is not an allegation of criminal wrongdoing. It is a call for public accounting before any further extension is granted to this project, which involve public land, a public coastline, a state statutory body and residents who live beside the Jelutong landfill.
“For residents, this is not an abstract contract. It is about whether a promised rehabilitation will finally make their neighbourhood safer, or whether they will be left with more delay, more uncertainty and a reclamation project they were never asked to approve,” said Dr K Ganesh, the chairperson of ProtectKarpal and PBSP.
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Why this matters now
The timing is urgent. The complaint follows five non-approvals of the environmental impact assessment over about 684 days and comes ahead of an expected 20 May Penang executive council discussion on PLB’s request for a further extension.
ProtectKarpal asks that any further extension not be treated as routine until the PAC has reviewed the tender record, the changes in the scope of the joint development agreement, previous approvals for extensions of time, and the public-risk implications.
What the public record shows
The agreement, signed in February 2020, contained an 18-month precondition: PLB Engineering Berhad was obligated to obtain approvals for the environmental impact assessment, the traffic impact assessment and the social impact assessment within 18 months – by around August 2021.
That deadline was not met. What followed was a sequence of extensions that the community only discovered through filings by the company with Bursa Malaysia, the stock exchange.
The extension trail
Sourced from PLB Engineering’s Bursa Malaysia filings and annual reports
2020
February – Joint development agreement signed: 18-month precondition deadline set for approvals of impact assessments, to be obtained by August 2021
October – First request: PLB requests up to four months extension
2021
October – Second request: 12 months requested
2022
August – Third request: Extended to 5 June 2023
2023
February – Fourth request: NRIC obligation expired; PLB re-applies
2024
June – Fifth request: PDC extends deadline to 30 June 2024
December – Sixth request: PDC extends deadline to 31 December 2024
2025
April – Seventh request: BPEN approves extension to 28 February 2026
2026
May – Eighth request: PLB applies again. Executive council to decide on 20 May
This is not one missed deadline. This is six years of repeated deadline extensions for what the joint development agreement defined as basic preconditions – conditions that had to be met before the project could even begin.
The DoE’s five rejections of the environmental impact assessment are the visible tip of a much larger governance failure that the PAC complaint now places on the public record.
The reclamation nobody proposed
The PAC complaint also flags a fundamental procurement question.
When PLB Engineering Berhad won the 2015 public tender, its own July 2016 revised proposal contained zero coastal sea reclamation.
Yet the 2020 joint development agreement introduced “reclamation”.
By the February 2025 environmental impact assessment, the figure had grown from zero to 70 acres.
A May 2026 media report cited “about 30 hectares”, about 74 acres, suggesting the scope may have grown further still.
The core question
The tender that was won had zero reclamation. Nevertheless, the 2020 agreement that was signed gave the company a way to reclaim.
The environmental impact assessment that was rejected five times had 70 acres. At no stage was there a competitive re-tender. At no stage was the statement assembly informed.
ProtectKarpal asks the PAC to determine who authorised each expansion, under what authority, and whether public procurement law was followed.
What ProtectKarpal is asking the PAC to do:
- Summon the chief minister, the PDC board, PLB Engineering Berhad, BPEN (the state economic planning division) and the DoE to testify on the terms of the joint development agreement, the changes to its scope, all extension approvals and the DoE rejections
- Compel the production of the full joint development agreement, all PDC and executive council minutes related to extensions, all environmental/social/traffic impact assessment documents, and DoE rejection letters – documents the community has been requesting for months without response
- Determine whether the introduction of coastal reclamation constitutes a material variation requiring a competitive re-tendering under Malaysian public procurement principles
- Examine who authorised the introduction of coastal reclamation into the joint development agreement, when the winning tender proposal contained none
- Examine the risks, liabilities, compensation claims, concessions, opportunity costs or termination consequences that may affect PDC, the Penang state government or the public
- Recommend that the Penang executive council defer its 20 May 2026 decision on PLB’s latest extension request until the PAC has completed its initial inquiry
“Six years. Eight extension requests. Five EIA rejections. And a project whose reclamation component grew from zero to 70 acres without a single public tender,” said Ganesh.
“We filed this complaint with the PAC because we have exhausted every other channel. The PAC has constitutional powers we do not – and the public deserves answers that only those powers can compel.”
Public accountability, not ‘anti-development’
ProtectKarpal supports safe and responsible rehabilitation of the Jelutong landfill. The committee’s objection is the unexplained change in the scope, weak public disclosure and repeated deadline extensions in a project that affects residents, fisherfolk, traffic, public health, coastal ecology especially Middle Bank, and the future of Karpal Singh Drive.
A developer-funded project can still require public scrutiny when it uses public decision-making power, involves public assets and changes the public coastline.
Call to action
ProtectKarpal calls on the Penang PAC to open an immediate inquiry, obtain the full joint development agreement and all extension of time documents, and publish its findings to the state assembly and the public.
ProtectKarpal also calls on the people of Penang to contact their state assembly members and ask them to support a PAC inquiry and to defer any further extensions until the documentary record is independently reviewed. — ProtectKarpal
The Protect Karpal Singh Drive Action Committee (ProtectKarpal) is a resident-led civic body, operating under the auspices of Bandar Sri Pinang Pulau Pinang Residents’ Association (PBSP), representing the communities of Bandar Sri Pinang and Jelutong in Penang. ProtectKarpal advocates for transparent governance, evidence-based environmental policy, and the protection of community health and ecological integrity in Penang.
The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.
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