ProtectKarpal formally challenges Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow and the Penang state government to answer a direct question of public interest: why does PLB Engineering Berhad seemingly continue to receive exceptional accommodations under the 2020 Jelutong landfill joint development agreement?
Currently, the state appears willing to grant this developer a potential 70% entitlement to a proposed 70-acre coastal “additional area” without a fresh open tender, repeated extensions of time, and a revised RM20m project management fee schedule.
Shockingly, this flexibility is being offered despite the developer recording five consecutive non-approvals of the environmental impact assessment, a prolonged non-commencement, audited financial red flags, and Penang’s own RM35m settlement lesson involving a PLB-linked subsidiary at Pulau Burung.
This is not an allegation of corruption or wrongdoing. It is a fundamental demand for public accountability.
When ordinary Penangites, small business owners or local contractors default on statutory deadlines, breach performance terms or fail to deliver on public contracts, the state apparatus enforces swift legal and financial consequences.
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Yet, in the Jelutong landfill project, this specific developer seemingly appears shielded from standard contract discipline, receiving extended deadlines, rewritten financial terms and continued official defence despite years of failure to commence work.
Penangites are entitled to ask: what makes this developer seemingly immune to the rules everyone else must follow?
“Residents are not operating on speculation; we are seeking verified facts, administrative rationale and public accountability,” said Dr K Ganesh, the chairperson of ProtectKarpal and the Bandar Sri Pinang Pulau Pinang Residents’ Association.
“To address growing community concerns regarding the project’s unique timeline and structural adjustments, we respectfully request the disclosure of key development parameters.
“Disclosing the foundational joint development agreement frameworks, approved extensions of time, revised payment mechanisms, and environmental technical studies will allow the public and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to independently assess the facts.”
To substantiate this concern, ProtectKarpal has consolidated four documented indicators that point to a clear, systemic pattern that might be seen as exceptional treatment:
A 70-acre coastal land windfall granted without open tender: The chief minister’s statement on 3 June attempted to frame the proposed 70-acre “additional area” as a mere technical engineering necessity for safe landfill closure.
ProtectKarpal rejects this reductive framing. Using public safety as a technical pretext for mass land creation fundamentally misrepresents the reality of the development.
- The scope creep: PLB’s revised “2016 “request for proposal” submission contained absolutely no coastal reclamation components. Yet, the 2020 joint development agreement opaquely embedded an “additional area”, which subsequently manifested in the 2025 environmental impact assessment as a massive 70-acre coastal reclamation project. This is no longer a landfill rehabilitation project. It has transformed into a high-value seafront real estate creation scheme.
- The asymmetric splitting: The state has confirmed that PLB will retain a 70% entitlement to this newly reclaimed, prime seafront land, while the public retains a mere 30%. This represents a highly disproportionate privatisation of public coastal assets, especially for a project originally pitched as a public environmental service.
- The procurement bypass: Converting public coastlines into developable corporate real estate without launching a fresh open tender, conducting updated independent valuations, or allowing scrutiny in the state assembly is unacceptable. It directly contradicts the state government’s own foundational principles of competence, accountability and transparency.
Rewriting the financial rules – the RM20m liability shift?: ProtectKarpal is also deeply concerned by the revised RM20m project management fee arrangement.
The 2021 PLB extraordinary general meeting circular disclosed that the original joint development agreement contained a time-based project management fee schedule totalling RM25m, with instalments payable within six, 12, 24, 36 and 48 months from the agreement date.
Under that statutory timeline, the final RM5m instalment was legally due around February 2024.
Yet Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow’s 3 June statement now says the remaining RM20m is not payable because state executive council decisions in November 2024 and April 2025 revised the payment schedule and seemingly tied payment to the commencement of work. Since PLB has still not obtained the necessary environmental approval and work has not commenced, the payment trigger has not been activated.
This raises a serious public-accountability question: did the state convert a time-based financial entitlement into an open-ended, developer-friendly deferral after the original payment milestones had already passed?
Because the developer has failed for years to clear the environmental approval process, the work has not commenced. This means the state’s intervention might effectively remove all financial performance pressure from the developer.
Who authorised this revision? What legal advice justified relieving a stalled developer of its financial obligations, and what interest penalties or additional security did Penang receive in return for this massive accommodation?
Eight extensions for basic preconditions that were never met: The 2020 joint development agreement required PLB to obtain approvals for environmental, traffic and social impact assessments within 18 months – by around August 2021.
These were not optional milestones. They were conditions precedent. If they were not fulfilled, the state government and the Penang Development Corporation had the contractual right to terminate the joint development agreement.
Yet instead of enforcing discipline, the state kept extending the time.
According to Bursa Malaysia filings by the company, from 2020 to 2026, PLB sought or received extension after extension: October 2020, October 2021, August 2022, February 2023, June 2024, December 2024, April 2025 and again in May 2026. This is not one missed deadline. It is a six-year pattern of deadline rescue.
The result is clear: the landfill remains un-rehabilitated, the environmental impact assessment remains unapproved, residents remain exposed to risk, and the developer remains protected from normal contractual consequences.
Repeated extensions after repeated non-compliance are not routine administration. They are another clear sign that PLB has seemingly received exceptional accommodation at the expense of public accountability.
Endless institutional patience despite severe financial red flags: Under normal public procurement guidelines, a contractor experiencing prolonged regulatory failure coupled with severe financial distress is flagged for immediate termination review. PLB has instead seemingly received endless leniency.
PLB’s audited annual reports for 2023, 2024 and 2025 contained “material uncertainty related to going concern” warnings by its external auditor, Grant Thornton Malaysia PLT.
In 2023, PLB recorded a group net loss of RM288.0m, while group current liabilities exceeded current assets by RM82.4m.
In 2024, PLB recorded a group net loss of RM12.8m, while group current liabilities exceeded current assets by RM54.8m.
In 2025, the company incurred a net loss of RM17.5m, while the company’s current liabilities exceeded current assets by RM71.2m.
ProtectKarpal does not allege insolvency or wrongdoing. But three consecutive years of severe audited financial warning signals should have triggered rigorous state-level due diligence and contract revocation – not an endless cycle of extensions of time.
The developer appears to be permitted to retain exclusive development options and public land rights, while the residents of Jelutong are forced to live next to an unrehabilitated hazard.
The Pulau Burung lesson should have made Penang stricter: This pattern is especially troubling because Penang has already experienced the Pulau Burung precedent.
PLB Terang Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of PLB Engineering Berhad, was involved in the Pulau Burung landfill phase 3 project. Public reports stated that the state terminated PLB Terang’s services after finding numerous non-compliances and delays, followed by a RM35m transfer or settlement arrangement.
The Pulau Burung disaster should have led to institutionalised strict, zero-tolerance oversight across all state landfill concessions.
Instead, the Jelutong joint development agreement has been met with rewritten terms, repeated extensions and official justifications that seem designed to keep a stalled agreement alive at all costs.
Will the CM keep his pledge?
Most importantly, ProtectKarpal asks Chief Minister Chow to answer one question directly: will he honor his explicit public pledge that no further extensions would be granted to PLB after 28 February 2026 – or will PLB receive yet another round of special accommodation?
This is now a test of political credibility. A pledge to the people cannot be diluted through technical language, revised schedules, internal approvals or new justifications.
If the promise stands, the contract must be terminated.
ProtectKarpal calls on the Penang state government and PDC to immediately:
- Declare unequivocally whether any further extension has been, or will be, extended to PLB beyond the February 2026 deadline
- Declassify and publish the full 2020 joint development agreement alongside all subsequent contractual amendments and payment schedule revisions
- Disclose the original 2015 RFP-winning proposal alongside all subsequent executive council and PDC papers concerning the 70-acre “additional area”
- Release the precise technical feedback and grounds for all five non-approvals of the environmental impact assessment, alongside any financial due diligence conducted post-2023
- Refer the entire procurement process, structural concessions and financial exposure of the Jelutong joint development agreement to the Penang Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for an immediate, independent investigation
The residents of Bandar Sri Pinang, Jelutong and Karpal Singh Drive demand the urgent, safe rehabilitation of the landfill to mitigate chronic fires, toxic gas emissions and leachate contamination.
However, we refuse to allow public safety necessity to be used as a shield for weak governance, opaque land-value transfers and seemingly preferential practices.
The era of demanding blind public trust without documentary evidence is over. Publish the documents, keep the pledge, and protect the people – not the developer. – ProtectKarpal
Issued on 10 June 2026
Sources:
PLB Engineering Berhad 2025 Annual Report:
https://plb.com.my/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/PLB-AR2025.Bursa_.pdf
PLB Engineering Berhad 2024 Annual Report:
https://plb.com.my/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PLB-AR2024.pdf
PLB Engineering Berhad 2023 Annual Report:
https://plb.com.my/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PLB-AR2023.pdf
2021 PLB EGM circular filed at Bursa Malaysia
https://disclosure.bursamalaysia.com/FileAccess/apbursaweb/download?id=237820&name=EA_FR_ATTACHMENTS
PLB’s revised 2016 proposal
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