DAP supremo and Ipoh Timur parliamentarian Lim Kit Siang today urged attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail to explain why he did not take action against former transport minister Chan Kong Choy for his complicity in the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

"Gani should resign as attorney-general if he cannot give a satisfactory explanation," said Lim in his latest blog posting.

He was responding to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommendation that the former transport minister be investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police for his complicity in the fiasco.

dap 2010 budget rocket cafe 071009 lim kit siang 01 According to the PAC report, said Lim, Chan was to be investigated for unlawfully issuing three letters of support which embroiled the country in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal, citing the offence of criminal breach of trust under Section 14(1) of the Financial Procedure Act 1957 read together with Section 409B of the Penal Code.

He further said that attorney-general even appeared before the PAC to reiterate that Chan had unlawfully given an implicit government guarantee in the three letters of support. The guarantee was something he had no power to give as transport minister.

"The question is why the attorney-general had failed to take action against Chan?" asked the DAP veteran.

Lim lauded the PAC report which was tabled in parliament along with several stacks of documents, minutes of the 13 PAC meetings on the subject from June 11 to Sept 3 and the Price Waterhouse Coopers' report on the PKFZ project.

PAC report a vindication

Lim said the PAC report is a vindication and confirmation of his statements and allegations about PKFZ, which he described as not only "a can of worms" but also a "swamp of crocodiles".

Though PAC's awareness of such matters, he alleged, "raises questions as to why no action had been taken much earlier, to avoid the rotten state of the PKFZ scandal today."

While commending the PAC "for taking such a clear stand", Lim questioned why the MACC was asked to step in and investigate.

Lim quoted an excerpt from a PAC meeting report on June 23, specifically on the exchange between PAC member and Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua and the MACC director of investigations Mohd Shukri Abdull.

dap 2010 budget rocket cafe 071009 tony pua 01 Tony Pua : However, even before 2007, there were issues of misuse of power, especially of the letters of support that was signed by a minister. Something that has been acknowledged by many including those from the government that a transport minister has no power to issue any financial guarantee to any party. Was any action taken? Why has there been no investigation into this possible misuse of power?

Mohd Shukri Abdull: The letters of support allegedly issued by the minister to OSK for Kuala Dimensi's loan application was one of the issues that we have investigated. We have completed the investigation. The deputy public prosecutor, however, found no evidence of any abuse of power.

From the exchange, Lim explained, it was crystal clear that Chan's alleged wrongdoings were not new information to the MACC, as it had 'investigated' them and 'found' that no offence had been committed.

"What purpose can be served by PAC recommending that MACC should further investigate Chan, when the commission had already cleared him of any offence?" asked Lim.

Lim said there was a need for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to build on the PAC findings as well as to investigate why the MACC, the attorney-general and other key institutions and important officials had failed to discharge their duties in allowing the PKFZ scandal to reach the present astronomical scale.

Lim also called for a special debate on the PAC report in parliament, saying that the first step was for MPs to go through the tomb of PKFZ documents.

PAC: Probe ex-transport minister for CBT