DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua has disputed Port Klang Authority’s (PKA) claim that it had to continue to pay Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) bondholders for the uncompleted Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project to avoid breach of contract.

“This is an outright lie because there is no contract term which requires payment by PKA to KDSB or its bondholders if the necessary construction works are not completed,” argued the Petaling Jaya Utara parliamentarian in a statement.

In fact, he believed that the port authority may be committing criminal breach of trust by paying KDSB for work that it knows is still uncompleted.

PKA has an outstanding legal claim of RM1.6 billion against KDSB for breach of contract and fraudulent claims over unfinished construction works.

“It makes absolutely no sense for the government to insist on making the payment when the government itself disagrees on whether work has been carried out or not.

“The only possible reason for the PKA and Transport Minister Kong Cho Ha to insist on making the payment is to protect KDSB,” lamented Pua.

He posited that the payments are perhaps continued to ensure that the BN-linked KDSB will not default on payments to its bondholders and lose money.

This, Pua said, is because KDSB has undertaken to guarantee that it would be liable to bondholders should there be a disruptions in the payments from the PKA for uncompleted works.

Yesterday, former transport minister Ong Tee Keat revealed that a whopping RM3.039 billion is estimated to have been paid to KDSB to date, and another RM733.37 million will be due on June 20 this year.

The payments contradicted advise from legal firm Skrine that PKA engaged to study the problem, who told the port authority to suspend payments pending their legal claim.

Yesterday, PKA had given an undertaking to make payment to the special purpose vehicles.