KUALA LUMPUR – Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow still has to explain how the father-in-law of Deputy Chief Minister II Jagdeep Singh Deo could have been nominated to head the state’s appeals board, Urimai leader M. Satees said.
The party secretary-general said the issue should not be swept under the carpet even though Datuk Baldev Singh Gurchan Singh had declined the appointment that was passed by the Penang assembly.
Chow must answer how the motion could have been passed by the assembly, Satees said in a statement today.
“Questions about the motion being passed in the state assembly still need to be addressed. Did Chow and Jagdeep disclose Baldev’s relationship (with Jagdeep) to the state exco members, prior to tabling the motion in the state assembly?
“Did Jagdeep disclose his relationship with Baldev to the members of the state assembly before tabling the motion to appoint him to the appeals board?
“Appointing or intending to appoint a family member to the board, without disclosing the relationship to the legislative members is indeed a nepotistic act,” Satees said.
Yesterday, Chow said in Penang that Baldev had turned down the appointment as chairman of the state appeals board so as not to prolong the issue despite being qualified to head the board, which decides on appeals to rejections of applications under the Penang Freedom of Information Enactment 2010.
Baldev and other new board members were named as candidates in a motion tabled to the Penang legislature last month by Jagdeep himself.
The motion was unanimously passed by the assembly on May 30.
Chow said a paper by Jagdeep explaining his father-in-law’s appointment, as well as his qualifications, including a distinguished legal career and charitable works, was studied by the state executive council before it was brought to the assembly. – June 3, 2024