The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found that many important decisions made by the Port Klang Authority (PKA) management, including on contracts and agreements, were only conveyed to the board of directors after they were signed.

NONE PAC chairperson Azmi Khalid ( centre ) said the PAC had the impression, after interviewing two former PKA chiefs, that on certain occasions information were not conveyed despite written requests for them.

Speaking to reporters after the committee questioned former chairpersons Yap Pian Hon and Dr Ting Chew Peh during a hearing at parliament house today, Azmi said, there were payments made by the board which were only signed by the management.

Azmi said the PAC should look into the PKA's management practices and the possibility of the board delegating its power to the management.

"It might have been that at one time, there was a delegation of power but we don't know for sure," he said.

PAC wraps up inquiry

Azmi said the PAC decided to call the former PKA chiefs to find out PKA's involvement in the implementation of Port Klang Free Zone projects, as well as the flow of information between the management and the board.

He said that Yap had denied that government representatives in the PKA board were silent during meetings and that when he (Yap) was the chairperson, they had been raising a lot of questions.

NONE Azmi said that Yap's testimony was different from the impression obtained by the PAC from the government representatives who claimed that there were merely attending meetings and that there were a lot of things they had no knowledge about.

On Ting's ( right ) testimony, Azmi said the PAC was told that when he (Ting) was the chairperson, the board only received information given by the management.

Azmi said that the PAC had now completed taking statements from those involved and would come up with a report soon.

No huge salary for PKA chief

Meanwhile, Yap told reporters that there were many misconceptions about the PKA, among them were that the chairperson was drawing a huge salary and that government representatives were not voicing out during meetings.

NONE Yap ( left ) said that the PKA chairperson was only given a monthly allowance of RM2,259.95 while the monthly allowance for board members was RM500.

Ting was the PKA chairperson between 2001 and 2004 while Yap was between 2004

and 2007.

PKFZ, a transshipment hub built on a 405-hectare site in Port Klang, was embroiled in a controversy after it was revealed that the development cost had shot up from RM2.5 billion to RM 4.6 billion.

- Bernama