Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai has been told to stop dragging his feet on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommendation that the auditor-general investigates the KL International Airport 2 (KLIA2) project.

 

It has been four months since the PAC submitted its report, but no action has been forthcoming from the minister, Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said in a statement today.

 

“Despite the fact that it took exactly six weeks for Liow to endorse the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) key recommendation, after sidestepping the question many times, it is certainly better late than never.

 

“However, it appears that Liow is a typical  ‘no action, talk only’ BN minister, because up till today, more than four months later, there has been no directive given to the auditor-general to carry out investigations on the discrepancies and anomalies in KLIA2,” Pua ( left ) said.

 

According to the MP, the PAC report shows many suspicious and controversial decisions made, which have resulted in not only KLIA2 being built at more than double the original budget of RM1.7 billion, but also having been delayed extensively, multiple times.  

 

Pua also slammed the Finance Ministry’s reply to his query in Parliament on Wednesday that the government was still studying the PAC report.

 

“The reply, interestingly from the Minister of Finance, was that ‘the Ministry of Finance, together with the Transport Ministry and the Auditor-General’s Department, are still studying the various issues raised by the PAC and that they will present a paper for the consideration of the cabinet.

 

“The answer is not only disappointing, it is an affront to the role of the PAC. 

 

“What’s more, it is already more than four months after the PAC report has been tabled. How long more do the Finance and Transport ministries need to study the report?” asked Pua.

'Minister without powers'

The report and recommendations were tabled in Parliament on Nov 25 last year.

 

“If even the recommendation for the auditor-general to conduct a detailed audit of the project requires another ‘paper’ for the consideration of the cabinet, then it shows that the executive arm of the government has utter contempt for the institution of Parliament,” Pua said.

 

He asked if the ministries were deliberately delaying the instruction to the auditor-general, in the hope that “the instructions never get issued” so that the culprits could “escape scot free”.

 

Pua also took a jab at Liow’s inability to take responsibility for his own ministry, which “proves only the well-known fact that Liow is perhaps only a minister in name”.

 

“He has no major decision-making powers over his ministry, to the extent that even the conduct of an audit by the auditor-general somehow now requires the permission of the Minister of Finance, who also happens to be Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.”

 

The transport and finance ministers, Pua added, should “stop pussyfooting over the scandal” and start by issuing the directive to the auditor-general at the next cabinet meeting next Wednesday.