SELANGOR Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim did no wrong when he declassified the Bukit Antarabangsa report on Wednesday.

This was the view of lawyer Derek Fernandez (pic) who said Khalid acted within his powers.

Fernandez, who specialises in local government and environmental issues, was commenting on Malay Mail’s report yesterday that quoted Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong as saying that the Menteri Besar may have acted beyond his jurisdiction when he declassified the report without first obtaining the consent of the ministry that had classified the report.

Liew said since the report was prepared by the Public Works Department, it was most likely that the report had been classified by the Works Ministry and Khalid must first obtain the consent of the minister before it could be declassified.

Fernandez said Liew’s interpretation of the law was not wrong but Liew might have been confused as to the application of the provision where consent of the minister was needed.

“The Menteri Besar had declassified a Section 2B Official Secret Act (OSA) confidential report and had acted so in accordance with Section 2C of the same Act,” he said.

“Liew’s view (that consent is needed) is only applicable to a Section 2A issue,” added Fernandez.

“For example, it would mean that if the Menteri Besar said that he wanted to declassify all Cabinet reports from now onwards, he would not be able to do so as consent must first be obtained from the minister. Only the minister has the authority to add, delete or amend any provision of the Schedule.

But if the Menteri Besar specifically says that he plans to declassify a particular Cabinet paper or he plans to declassify a particular report, he would be allowed to do so without first obtaining consent,” Fernandez said.

On Wednesday, Khalid said he declassified the Bukit Antrabangsa report in accordance with Section 2C of the OSA that reads: A minister or public officer charged with any responsibility in respect of any Ministry, department or any public service or the Menteri Besar or the chief minister of a State or the principal officer in charge of the administrative affairs of a State may, at any time, declassify any document specified in the Schedule or any official document, information or material as may have been classified.

And upon such declassification, the said document, information or material shall cease to be official secret.” As such, in this case, Fernandez said: “Khalid had clearly acted within his powers.”

He also said it does not matter how the report came into the hands of the Menteri Besar, what matters was that he did not obtain the report unlawfully.

“In this case, the report was obtained from the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council.”

Khalid had on Wednesday released a four-page summary to the Press on what had caused the Bukit Antrabangsa landslide on Dec 6, last year.

The report said the main cause of the landslide was leaking pipes from active water pipe lines that had increased the content of water in the soil in the weakened slope areas.

The full report will be on sale at the council’s office on Monday. The summary of the report will be distributed free by the council.