Kit Siang: Probe the puppet masters

Andrew Ong | May 29, 09 2:11pm | Malaysiakini

Veteran opposition lawmaker Lim Kit Siang has urged the government to form a commission of inquiry to probe the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

“The inquiry must investigate by going beyond the Port Klang Authority (PKA) and probe the Treasury and the previous transport ministers,” Lim said.

The two transport ministers singled out by Lim was Ling Liong Sik (1986 - 2003) and Chan Kong Choy (2003 - 2008).

“The PKA chairperson is only a puppet. The masters were Ling and Chan,” said Lim.

Lim was speaking to reporters after leading a seven-member delegation to the PKA headquarters in Port Klang to study the three-inch thick appendix to the PKFZ audit report for four hours. The appendix was released today.

Lim also lashed out at current Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat for defining a narrow terms-of-reference for the audit by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) and not granting firm investigative powers.

He said that this falls short of Ong’s promise of a complete disclosure over the scandal.

By doing so, Lim said Ong had done a “great disservice” to the country by “tying the hands and feet of PwC” and thus producing a reported that was “highly unsatisfactory and cannot be accepted”.

Lim said that a thorough probe by means of a commission of inquiry was necessary to probe Lim, Chan and Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was prime minister when the project kicked in the early 2000s.

MACC probe not enough

In another development, Klang MP Charles Santiago has also urged the government to form a commission of inquiry on the scandal, because the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency has proven to be inefficient.

Santiago said numerous reports on PKFZ have already been submitted to the then Anti-Corruption Agency but no action appears to have been taken.

“The (then) Anti-Corruption Agency has took files from PKFZ. They know about the wrongdoings involving the project, but nothing has come out of it,” he told Malaysiakini.

Santiago said that similarly, Bursa Malaysia and the Parliament Public Accounts Committee (under Johor Baru MP Shahrir Samad then) looked into the matter as well, but no action was taken.

“There seems to be a lack of oversight by the relevant regulators. These institutions have failed and nothing short of a commission of inquiry is needed to get to the bottom of this,” he said.

He added that these bodies were aware of the PKFZ scandal even before the audit report and their inaction begs the question of whether there was collusion, political interference of intimidation.

Santiago was commenting on the decision by Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat to hand the audit report of the controversial project over to the MACC for further action.

“This is the biggest financial fiasco in Malaysian history. It is disappointing that the transport minister is gloating that by reporting to the MACC, the problem will be resolved,” added Santiago.

Report handed to MACC

Earlier today, Port Klang Authority (PKA) chairperson Lee Hwa Beng handed a copy of the audit report to the MACC office in Putrajaya at about 8am.

He later spent about 10 minutes in a meeting with MACC deputy commission Abu Kassim Mohammad.

Speaking to reporters later, he said that both PKA and auditors PwC have pledged full cooperation with MACC.

He said that PKA would only take action internally after MACC has completed its probe.

Among others, the audit reports serious mismanagement of the project which has ballooned from a cost of RM1.9 billion to RM7.5 billion till date.

Should there be no remedies, the audit report projected that PKFZ would cost taxpayers RM12 billion by 2051.