The RM12 billion Port Klang Free Zone scandal took another twist when it is reported today that there is a fall-out between the Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and the man he appointed to clean up and salvage the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) – Lim Thean Shiang, the Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager and PKFZ chief executive.
According to the Sun, Lim tendered his resignation last week which was accepted by Ong on Thursday. In a SMS to the Sun, Lim said his resignation must first be tabled before the PKA board meeting tomorrow for it to take effect.
Is there a suggestion that there might be a coup at the PKA Board meeting tomorrow and that Lim’s resignation might be rejected?
It is reported that the fallout between Ong and Lim was over the handling of the PKFZ scandal, both on the publication of the PwC audit as well as Lim’s briefing to Barisan Nasional backbenchers on May 5 on the project, which was made without Ong’s approval.
The “secret” briefing by Lim to the Barisan Nasional MPs is most improper and irregular.
Whether with or without his prior approval, Ong must assume full Ministerial responsibility for the “secret” briefing by Lim to the BN backbenchers on the PKFZ scandal, and give a full account to the nation – how many and who were the BN MPs who attended, the venue, time, how long the briefing, who were the PKA and Transport Ministry officials who attended, and what exactly was transacted at the briefing.
Was the Official Secrets Act breached in the briefing, as the reason which had been given so far for the protracted delays in publication of the PricewaterhouseCooper audit report on the PKFZ scandal is that certain aspects of the report is protected by the OSA.
Or was the special PKFZ briefing so “secretive” that nothing about it could be revealed to the public. If so, it is all the more important that all those who attended the “secretive” meeting be made public to avoid any suspicion that the independence of the BN backbenchers had been compromised by the PKFZ ‘secret” briefing and they should be disqualified from taking part in any debate or vote affecting the PKFZ question in Parliament.
Be that as it may, Malaysians are tired of the 14-month procrastination by Ong to fulfill his public pledge to “tell all” about the PKFZ scandal and make public the PricewaterhouseCooper audit report which he subsequently ordered.
Public disappointment at Ong’s failure to fulfill his public pledge has become even more acute following media reports, both local and foreign, that the PKFZ scandal had ballooned in cost in three stages, viz:
(i) from RM1.8 billion in 2002 under the then Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ling Liong Sik (with the Cabinet given the assurance that not a single sen of public funds would be needed as it was a viable and self-financing private project);
(ii) to more than double the original cost at RM4.6 billion under Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy as Transport Minister ; and
(iii) to the current frightening figure of RM12 billion under Ong.
The Singapore Straits Times in its report dated May 7, 2009, said that “a financial crisis at Malaysia’s main port agency, which could saddle the government with losses exceeding RM12 billion (S$5 billion) is shaping up as a major policy test for the administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak”.
It quoted “senior government officials” that the PricewaterhouseCooper audit report on the PKFZ “will show that losses stemming from bonds issued to finance the project could plunge it into insolvency by 2012.”
The Singapore Straits Times said the PwC report “ also details an array of alleged management irregularities at the free-trade zone development”, including “serious conflict-of-interest breaches between officials of the port authority and executives of private companies with close ties to the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government”.
The time has come to end all procrastinations and for the RM12 billion PKFZ can of worms to be fully opened to the glare of Malaysian public and for everyone, regardless of status or position, responsible for the mega financial scandal to be brought to book and prosecuted in the courts.
Whether from MCA, UMNO or any other Barisan Nasional component party, whether big guns or small fries, retired or current politicians including those in the present Najib administration, let them all pay the price for the RM12 billion PKFZ scandal.
#1 by k1980 on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 2:19 pm
To all malaysians who continue to support the mca— you were born stupid, and may this gift be passed on to your descendants.
#2 by k1980 on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 2:47 pm
The mca obviously believe that the people can be easily fooled, as Elie Youssef Najem has previously fooled many in this country
–http://www.asianpacificpost.com/portal2/ff808081094b55a901094c0f4d4300de_Nutty_billionaire.do.html
#3 by DAP man on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 2:47 pm
I am sure NOT a single BN politician, past or present, will be hauled up. It will be, as always, a cover up.
UMNO has to provide immunity for its leaders or the whole lot of them will be in jail.
#4 by yhsiew on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 2:48 pm
Kit,
Fight hard to get back the RM12 billion and pump it into PSD Scholarship Fund to help more Malaysians receive tertiary education.
#5 by the reds on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 3:09 pm
OTK is a real penakut! I can’t imagine how can he become the president of MCA?
#6 by gofortruth on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 3:59 pm
So it is a correct public perception that it is all “wayang” about PKA appointing legal advisor to look into indemnifying PwC on the audit report where in actual fact UMNO & MCA are left scrambled for extra time trying to arm twist PwC into changing certain “vital” findings of the audit report ie to sweep them under the “carpet”.
Absolutely disgusting!
#7 by Yee Siew Wah on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 6:00 pm
12Billion bucks!!. Where have all these money gone?? Into the greedy,corrupted and evil politicians and cronies??
This amount of money can sponsor not 800 but 8,000 deserving students in the country. How can people get so so greedy to wallop all these money from the rakyat. Have they got no feelings??
Really disgusting indeed.
PKR must go all out to get to the bottom and expose these evil, corrupte and greedy politicians and cronies
#8 by ktteokt on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 6:17 pm
Many weeks ago, OTK said the report on PKFZ will be out “next week”! Malaysians have waited for so many “next weeks” and until today, we have not seen even the “cover” of the report! What colour is it? What is written on it? And just how thick is this report going to be? What are the contents written in it? No one knows! It is as good as the “Wu Zi Tian Shu” (The Heavenly Book Without Words)! Malaysia Boleh! BN Boleh! MCA Boleh! OTK Boleh! Semua pun BOLEH (mati)!
#9 by chengho on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 6:43 pm
OTK have to follow the procedure , PwC need to be idemnified
MCA still the best for Malaysian…1Malaysia…
#10 by Godfather on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 7:30 pm
The link is so obvious. Who is the person behind Kuala Dimensi ? Who is the current chairman of the backbenchers’ club ?
#11 by Godfather on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 7:48 pm
Money that was supposed to be routed for the 2008 elections went into the pockets of a group of individuals. I’m willing to bet that these people didn’t even pay tax on their ill-gotten gains. Now the public is being asked to bail-out the hare-brained scheme ? Are we really that stupid ? Maybe stupid idiots like cintanegara and chengho can accept what is going on, but not the rest of us.
#12 by ALLAN THAM on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 8:02 pm
PKFZ scandal? The mother of all scandal in Malaysia as at to date. It involved multi-billions and it involved all politician from the components parties in BN.
It also involved few ministers that has since opt for early retirement quoting one reason or other.
The magnitude of the sum involved was unprecedented as of today. As I have say before if OTK is truly live up to his word of serving the people, this PKFZ is God give present to him to test him honestly to serve the people. How he could do that? Very simple in deed, make full disclosure and bring all those involved who found corrupted and abusing their power to charge. If he find the pressure is too great to handle then it is easy to take the move just resign and it is honorable thing to do and it is one in a life time opportunity to serve the people as what he always claimed to be.
#13 by Rocky on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 8:07 pm
well OTK walk the talk, make it public…performance now remember. Yeah and we want to know who were those MPs. There is conflict of interest here with BN MP(s).
all said, it looks like it i going to be cover up.and here BN is saying Penanti is waste of taxpayers money.
#14 by YK Leong on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 8:13 pm
RM12 billion (RM120,000,000.00) PKFZ scandal. After almost 14 months, King Ta Kut’s “tell all” public pledge is still pending a “greenlight” for it to be materialised.
The excuses for the long overdue delay are (1) to declassify certain documents, (2) to meet PWC’s request for idemnity, (3) to seek PWC’s permission and approval for the release, (4) to seek legal consultation, (5) to obtain approval from PKA’s board of directors, etc.
The public is very dismayed and disappointed awaiting the release of the audited PKFZ report or the “tell all” public pledge. The question that strikes my mind is whether King Ta Kut is brave enough to make public the report without any further excuse and any further delay? Say within this week. If he cannot do it, then it is better for him to tender his resignation as a minister as well as the MCA president.
I stress that such procrastinate attitude to fulfill his public pledge to “tell all” about the RM12 billion PKFZ scandal and audited PKFZ report cannot be tolerated any further.
#15 by ALLAN THAM on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 8:29 pm
My message to Ong is very simple, he look decent and always believe in serving the people. He also look simple enough and brave enough during his younger days. Now life is very simple, eat, sleep and shit. If you can do these three things then you are fine until your last breath before leaving this earthly world. Now wahy are you Ong so scare of your rice bowl after all I believe what you need to lieve each day is just simple green vegetable and eat them as raw as you wish to keep a health life. so take the full courage to disclosed all and not only so bring all those suckers to hook and hang if possible, other wise you are another kow tau fellow and just scare of losing your rice bowl.
This is the life time chance for you yo serve the people and after that you can retired with full honor and enjoy your Chinese calligraphy, and sip your tea with your family. Please remember that a healthy life is very simple and you donot need a lot of money to retired , just drink water and eat vegetable as green and as raw as possible.
Do what you should do with this PKFZ and then retire with FULL honor not like all your other predecessors who retired with no face to face the people. Yes one more thing when you retire you need not drink whiskey so you do not relly need a lot of money to retire.
Please do the honorable thing and be a hero. The magnitude of this PKFZ just can not let it died as it is.
#16 by limkamput on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 9:12 pm
1 billion is 1,000,000,000. So if it 12 billion, it is 12,000,000,000. We should get the number right before criticising. It could be careless mistakes; it could be ignorance.
#17 by ALLAN THAM on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 9:19 pm
The audited financial results for the latest two years were summarized below for your guys to digest:
KUALA DIMENSI SDN BHD
31 Dec 2007 2006
RM RM
Turnover 252,530,866 677,748,193
Profit before tax 38,582,088 37,954,871
Profit after tax 30,323,608 25,570,190
Net dividend -35,000,000 -25,000,000
Please note that 2006 profit after tax 25mil and dividend declared 25m, 2007 profit after tax 30 mil and dividend declared rm35.
kUALA DIMENSI WHOLLY owned by A COMPANY CALL wijaya baru holdings and in turn 70% owned by tiang
#18 by Onlooker Politics on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 10:00 pm
Allan Tham’s corporate example indicated that KUALA DIMENSI SDN BHD declared a total dividend of RM35 million for financial year ended 31.12.2007, which was a figure much larger than the after-tax profit of RM30.323608 million.
KUALA DIMENSI SDN BHD must have some accumulated profit (Retained Profit) brought forward from previous few years which enabled the company to declare a total dividend which was larger than its one whole year earnings in 2007. If this reasoning is accurate, then there is nothing wrong in the account and management practices.
However, if KUALA DIMENSI SDN BHD did borrow money from the creditors or the bankers (such as through the way of issuing corporate bond), then the Board of Directors of the company might be in legal predicament as the company could have breached the contract which the company has entered into with the money lenders when signing documents for bond issuance.
A company which issued Bond might need to observe its legal obligation in setting up a sinking fund and to set aside and deposit a relevant amount of money each and every month into the sinking fund for making preparation for redemption of the Bond upon its maturity. However, I believe there are some corporates in Malaysia not doing the right thing after they have issued bond to borrow money from the bond investors. In most western countries which practise a serious audit control and tight legal requirement on corporate governance, the Managing Directors and the Executive Directors can indeed be prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor for committing the Criminal Breach of Trust (CBT) if they did not comply to the accounting standards for setting up the sinking fund on time.
Did Port Klang Authority (PKA) issue Bond which had already been falling overdue long after its maturity date? Did anyone know about the true story?
#19 by Onlooker Politics on Wednesday, 20 May 2009 - 10:36 pm
ALLAN THAM Says:
May 10th, 2009 (2 weeks ago) at 15: 01.52
KUALA DIMENSI SDN BHD (297068-V)
NATURE OF BUSINESS; CONTRACTOR AND PROPENSITY MANAGEMENT
FINANCIAL YEAR ENDED 31.12.2007
BALANCE SHEET ITEMS
NON CURRENT ASSETS -72,652,078
CURRENT ASSETS 971,722,886
CURRENT LIABILITIES 724,671,638
PAID UP SHARE CAPITAL 30,000,000
RESERVES 144,399,170
INCOME STATEMENT ITEMS
REVENUE RM252,530,866
PROFIT BEFORE TAX RM38,582,088
PROFIT AFTER TAX RM30,323,608
NET DIVIDEND RM35,000,000
CHARGES: UNSATISFIED charges created with total value RM7,590,000,000
Sources: ssm search
Comment:
Unsatisfied charge created amount to 7,590,000,000.
This is most likely where the Goven guaranteed come in??
Comment by Onlooker Politics follows:
By doing a revision on Allan Tham’s posted comment as shown above, it is quite astonishing for me to find that KUALA DIMENSI SDN BHD did have a huge debt created amounting to RM7,590,000,000 but this company was allowed by the auditor to declare dividend in 2007. I believe the practising license of Financial Director of the Company can be revoked by the professional body even if this Financial Director did not sign any document or statutory declaration in the account. By normal practice, the Financial Director of the Company should be the first person who got some hints about the financial fraud that was being deployed in the company.
It was clearly shown that there was a commercial crime being committed by someone here as shown in the company financial statements.
#20 by ekin on Thursday, 21 May 2009 - 2:21 am
Mr Pathetic Laksamana Cheng Ho,
“OTK have to follow the procedure , PwC need to be idemnified
MCA still the best for Malaysian…1Malaysia…” – Follow my foot! What kind of procedure to follow? Getting approval from all the cronies involved whether the report should be presented to the public? Hell no! I believed they are waiting for the precious accountants they hired to make a false report in order everyone involved could be justified. Well, see who’s the scapegoat this time HA HA…
OTK can only go for one term, next will be bye bye. MCA can’t even bark at what happened in Perak, still the best? Ya best in keeping quiet! LAUGH OUT LOUD!
#21 by ALLAN THAM on Thursday, 21 May 2009 - 8:38 am
Today Star head line read” MACC MOVES IN –Commission starts probe in PKFZ project”. The first question in my mind was “ WHY NOW”. For those who has follow this project will know that the Sun’s reporter Mr. Nades has written extensively on this project and he has made many comments that warrant immediate investigation. Should there being an investigation after the Sun report the damage may no be escalated to such an astronomical figures as it was reported now.
While we tax payers welcome any genuine efforts taken by MACC to “starts” the probe or what has been reported to probe since there was new leads or further investigations is under way, all sorts of explanation and things like that. It really could not erase the public perfection that MACC has not done enough or it has not free will to do any exhaustive investigation. Again public perfection was that any probe need further authorization from some one unseen. This cut into the public heart and it hurt all of us as we are talking of the potential losing billions of tax payer moneys.
I can’t feeling and stop the anger or what ever the feeling for any concern public, as the scandal like this was not the first and off course it will be the last either. The most painful things for the public to bear was the fact that this scandal has been expose long before yet the authority concern chose to ignore it by purpose or intentionally. This once more shown the arrogant or insensitiveness of the authority towards the public opinion.
This again shown that BN has again blatantly ignored the wishes of the people to have accountability and transparency in implementing any of the projects.
This scandal and the way the BN reaction on it again shown that they refused to admit its mistake and lack of the will to take those responsible to charge. And I wish I am wrong this time round.
I as a tax payer demand the authority to take full responsibility and do the honorable thing ie to bring those commit the miscarriage of trust the trust of putting the tax payers money into waste to be charged and nothing less than can claim to be the people PM or people first performance now. Other wise it is nothing than slogan shouting?
#22 by Godfather on Thursday, 21 May 2009 - 8:53 am
The country may lose up to RM12 billion because a bunch of thieves within BN hatched a scheme to raise money for the 12th GE, and in the process they enriched themselves with the spoils. The kampung folks don’t really care, because (a) they don’t pay taxes, and (b) they think that the country is a bottomless pit swirling with money.
MACC to investigate ? Maybe to catch a few ikan bilis, but I can assure you folks that nothing will come out of it. The real sharks have disappeared and are probably enjoying their spoils in Australia, UK and Indonesia.
#23 by HJ Angus on Thursday, 21 May 2009 - 10:38 am
Thus far the authorities have been treating this like a VERY HOT POTATO but then again they are quite adept at this.
Remember how the IPCMC got stuck in cold storage and then the LINGAM tape saga is still being played with no end in sight.
Guess we might have to wait for the next GE and when PR rules in Putrajaya we will hear more stories like BALKIS.
#24 by Wanchong on Thursday, 21 May 2009 - 3:07 pm
Hi all,
Why until now still blaming and blaming?! Why did not anyone suggest the better to develop it?!!! Since the facilities were already built, opposition should cooperate with government to develop PKFZ. Who know it can generate more income to our country and create more job opportunities? Please don’t just know to critic but can not give good suggestion to develop country!
#25 by blablowbla on Thursday, 21 May 2009 - 10:17 pm
bolehland is a wonderfull country,despite being a MP,he could also be a tycoon,and make all rules relevant to his business,make his kingdom bigger,stronger and forever!
i was told that Vncnt Tan actually likes to be a politician too,but bcos of his health condition,he couldnt do so!
when the right time comes,i’ll let you what is his health problem.
Allan Tham is so right,can i call you Tham Sir?
this scandal will sure covered under the MACC’s umbrella,and subsequently court case,than postponements,6 months,9 months,15 months,postponements again,untill the judge dies,change the judge,court case again,then change another MACC chief,or Chief Judge,case suspended……………….untilll you forget it!
#26 by House Victim on Tuesday, 26 May 2009 - 12:10 am
1. When Lim resigned, who is going to answer to the enquiry on the report? One should make it clear that he is still responsible to the report even he resigned. Otherwise, it is a JOKE for this kind of investigation.
2. OTK had done a “great” job in “handling” abandoned Housing project in billion when he was Minister of Housing and Local Government. His “contribution” in that is comparable with this PKFZ project, with million of people to suffer.
3. When such officers are not subject to enqiury and investigation, what else can Malaysia improve? But what can anyone do with the existing administration and judiciary system?