Veteran parliamentarian Lim Kit Siang said that there is an attempt by the government to suppress pertinent information about abuses of power and malpractices in the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) mega trans hub project.

According to Lim, the Public Accounts committee (PAC) findings into the huge sum spent on the project revealed in Parliament yesterday, did not intend to expose much but had "inadvertently" disclosed several facts.

The PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit report on PKFZ said the estimated cost of the project would increase from RM4.947 billion to RM7.453 billion due to interest payments.

It recommended that the Port Klang Authority (PKA) to restructure the loan or the total cost of the project will balloon to RM12.453 billion by 2051.

Citing the report on the three Letters of Support issued by former transport minister Chan Kong Choy, which were regarded by the committee as Letters of Guarantee, they were implicitly a guarantee by the government to finance the project.

"This decision to retrospectively validate that RM4.6 billion bond because of unlawful issuance of Letters of Support by the transport minister concerned was made by the cabinet, but up till now, for more than two years, the Malaysian public and Parliament have not been told the truth," said Lim.

NONE The Ipoh Timur DAP parliamentarian said that despite the the fact the government had its authorisation on June 27, 2007, ministers and deputy ministers continued to "mislead Parliament by denying the legal status of these Letters of Support".

The PAC yesterday recommended that Chan ( right ) and PKA's former general manager O C Phang be investigated for criminal breach of trust in the development of the project.

According to the PAC report, the duo should be probed over the wrongful issuance of three letters of support by Chan and three letters of undertaking by Phang without the approval of the finance ministry.

The report said the PAC was informed by the attorney-general that the three support letters issued by Chan and three letters of undertaking issued by Phang were implicitly a form of guarantee from the government to ensure that there would be allocations for PKA, to enable it to meet its obligations under the development agreement.

Cabinet putting up a pretence

Lim added that Prime Minister Najib Razak's assurance that the special task force to look into the discrepancies in the project and the PAC's finding is seen with scepticism as the cabinet had been denying the status of the letters.

"The prime minister, the deputy prime minister and the cabinet are all putting up a great pretence as if they are learning about the abuses of power, criminal breach of trust, illegalities and improprieties in various aspects of the PKFZ scandal for the first time, when most of this information had been in their possession for some time," said Lim.

NONE "Such pretences are most shocking and even outrageous. This is why my immediate response to Najib's ( left ) announcement on the super task force into the PKFZ scandal in September was to ask whether it would be a "super cover-up" task force into the PKFZ scandal.

"In fact, I had raised many of these issues in the previous parliament (sittings) whether by way of abortive emergency motion under Section 18 of the Standing Orders or speeches during budget and other debates," said Lim.

The PAC should have issued a damning report against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the police for failing in their duties to uphold the law in getting to the bottom of the PKFZ scandal, he added.

"(By now) the various errant personalities would already have been hauled to court and standing trial for a multitude of criminal offences," said Lim.

'Time to end the high-level conspiracy'

He also pondered on the status on the inquiry order by the cabinet in 2007 and headed by chief secretary Mohd Sidek Hassan to probe into how the Letters of Support could have been issued unlawfully and to take the necessary disciplinary actions against those involved in the RM12.5 billion scandal.

dap graftbuster pc 230409 lim lip eng 2 "(Mohd Sidek) should explain why this had not been done for more than two years... why didn't PAC summon the chief secretary to report on the status of such investigations since June 2007?" he asked.

"It is time to end the high-level conspiracy to cover up a full disclosure of all aspects and levels of the PKFZ scandal. Let the full can of worms and swamp of crocodiles in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal be fully exposed," said Lim.

Segambut DAP MP Lim Lip Eng ( right ) said that the PAC report also revealed that all buildings and construction in PKFZ, except one, did not have any certification of fitness (CF).

"What will happen if these buildings suddenly collapse or if there was a fire, who will bear the responsibility?" he asked.

He urged the government to freeze Chan and Phang's local and overseas assets just as it was done to assets of PKFZ's turnkey developer, Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB).