The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will probe the government-owned Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (SPNB) over inconsistencies highlighted in the auditor-general’s report last year.

NONE PAC chairperson Azmi Khalid said that, after examining the financial issues raised in the report, it was found some of these need to be ironed out.

He told reporters that the company’s purchase of 1,294 public buses at RM93million in 2003 are among the issues.

Yesterday, several PAC members had visited a bus depot in Sungai Buaya to inspect buses decommissioned by SPNB and disposed as scrap in 2005, two years from the date of purchase.

“Many things have been raised in the audit report but we are only looking at things that involve money,” said Azmi.

                        

His deputy Dr Tan Seng Giaw, the DAP parliamentarian for Kepong, told Malaysiakini that the main agenda of the meeting today was to come to a “consensus and solution” on the issue of decommissioned buses.

NONE “When Prasarana made the purchase of the buses, they must have gotten somebody to make an assessment as there must be some basis for the purchase... it is believed that PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) did the valuation,” he said.

Tan said that, of the 1,294 buses, only 155 were not cannibalised. Another batch of over 1,000 buses was then purchased from China.

“If you are a good managing director, you wouldn't cannibalise all... so we want to know what was stated in the PwC report at the point of purchase and the Raine & Horne evaluation in 2007,” he said.

Scope of probe

Other concerns involving SPNB highlighted in the auditor-general's report were the RM19.8 million loss incurred from equity investment in KL Infrastructure Group Bhd, and purchase of ‘overpriced’ land in Balakong, Cheras.

                

It was also reported that SPNB recorded a loss of RM839.81 million in December 2007 due to poor management.

tony puah When contacted, PAC member and Petaling Jaya MP Tony Pua said PAC members are “unhappy” as there a many “unnatural forms of decision-making” surrounding SPNB deals.

“We have asked for the initial valuation done before the RM93 million was paid, the Raine & Horne report, and the decision to decommission the buses and turn it to scrap for just RM8 million,” he said.

NONE “It's understandable that from RM93 million, the valuation had dropped to RM68 million (by the time of the Raine & Horne report) because of depreciation. But the RM8 million is an issue.”

The PAC's probe will further cover alleged anomalies in the Rawang-Ipoh double tracking and electrification project , the theft of two F-5E fighter jet engines and the collapse the Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin stadium in Kuala Terengganu.

He said PAC is wrapping up its summary of the issues investigated and will table this in Parliament when the Dewan Rakyat sits from March 15.