The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) will open an investigation paper on Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng over his alleged purchase of a house in the state at an undervalued price.

A reliable source said the IP would be opened under the MACC Act 2009, “for allegedly receiving a bribe from a party with interest”.

“We received a number of reports on the issue today and we are waiting to see whether there are more to come.

“We would normally open an IP as soon as possible in cases like this and we will investigate regardless of who the individual is,” according to a statement Friday.

The source also said the MACC would call Guan Eng to give his statement, after obtaining the complainants and witnesses’ statements.

“The witnesses would be called to confirm their claims and only after that would we call him (Guan Eng),” said the source.

The local press Friday reported about the alleged purchase by Guan Eng of a house in Jalan Pinhorn, George Town, Penang for lower than the current market value.

Earlier today at a press conference, Guan Eng read out a statement but declined to take questions.

Yesterday at the Dewan Rakyat, Datuk Shabudin Yahaya (BN-Tasek Gelugor) claimed that the house, on 10,161 sq ft (943.98 sq metres) of land, was bought by Guan Eng on Oct 25 last year for RM2.8 million.

According to Shabudin, the market value of the property was between RM6 million and RM6.5 million.

Guan Eng had reportedly denied Shabudin’s claim.

Penang DAP Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today claimed that he had bought his bungalow in Jalan Pinhorn here for RM2.8 million on a willing buyer-willing seller basis.

The 30-year-old double-storey bungalow was bought from a private owner, he said.

“I took a bank loan of RM2.1 million and paid the remaining RM700,000 in cash based on my income as the chief minister and an elected representative,” he told a news conference at Komplek Tun Abdul Razak (Komtar) in Penang.

Lim had read out a statement at the press conference and declined to take questions.

He likened the contract of sale of the house to a marriage, saying it was left to the two sides to determine the (house) price or (marriage) partner.

Lim was responding to Tasek Gelugor MP Datuk Shabudin Yahaya’s request yesterday to the Department of Valuation and Property Services to undertake a valuation on the bungalow which he claimed was worth more than RM3 million.

Shabudin also asked the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate an allegation of the sale of several lots of land in Penang originally reserved for the construction of houses for the hardcore poor.

At the press conference today, Lim challenged Shabudin to discuss the issue of the purchase of his bungalow with him face-to-face before the media at his office.

“I will wait for Shabudin at my office on Sunday March 20 at 11am to discuss the matter and determine the truth from facts, in front of the media,” he said.

Lim said it was not right to associate the purchase of his house in 2015 with the sale of state government land in Taman Manggis in 2012 when the sale of the land was executed via open competitive tender.

The Prime Minister’s Office does not prohibit online media from covering the programmes of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, the Dewan Rakyat was told Thursday.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said that at times the Prime Minister’s Office restricted the number of reporters covering programmes of the Prime Minister because of limited space and security reasons and to enable more focused reporting.

She was replying to a question from Teo Nie Ching (DAP-Kulai) who had wanted to know whether the Prime Minister’s Office prohibited online media from covering the activities of the Prime Minister despite their having valid media permits.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) does not dismiss the possibility of cooperating with a new political block, the PAS-Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia (Ikatan) pact, if both parties share the same struggle.

PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said the party’s focus was on the interests of the people and country.

“If we have similarities, we can forge cooperation but as for formal cooperation, I think that will have to be discussed first,” she said at a news conference at the Parliament lobby, today.

Dr Wan Azizah was commenting on the possibility of PKR establishing cooperation with a new opposition block.

Asked on the possibility of a PAS-Ikatan pact “attacking” Pakatan Harapan, she said: “We’ll wait and see.”

Yesterday, PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang announced the formation of a new pact with Ikatan in facing the 14th general election.

The Selangor state government has been slammed by a Barisan Nasional (BN) member of parliament (MP) for giving priority to the “Free Anwar” campaign and not the anti-dengue campaign.

Datuk Seri Noh Omar (BN-Tanjung Karang) said this could be seen from the many signboards calling for the release of Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim compared to those on the anti-dengue campaign.

“The dengue problem in Selangor is serious. There were 77 deaths recorded in the state in 2014, 177 last year and another 17 deaths up to March this year,” he said when debating on the motion of thanks for the opening address by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in the Dewan Rakyat, Thursday.

For the anti-dengue campaign, the federal government had allocated RM12 million to the Selangor government from 2013 until March this year, while the Selangor government only allocated RM2 million.

Noh said the federal government, through the 11th Malaysia Plan, had approved 289 projects worth some RM18.37 billion in Selangor.

As such, the Selangor government should be grateful to the federal government for the assistance and infrastructure provided by the BN government, he added.