An opposition MP said the failed attempts of Port Klang Authority (PKA) chairperson Teh Kim Poh to exonerate his boss, Transport Minister Kong Cho Ha, from blame in the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) bonds payment fiasco only proved the sheer lack of competence in PKA.

port klang free zone pkfz audit In a statement issued today, DAP’s Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua chided Teh for covering up for Kong with lies by placing the blame on his predecessor Lee Hwa Beng and former transport minister Ong Tee Keat.

During a press conference last Friday, Teh claimed that the previous payments of RM660 million in 2009 and 2010 respectively to Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) bondholders were made and approved by Lee, and was a continuation of the policies of Ong.

To this, Pua said Teh must be either completely clueless about what had happened in 2009 and 2010 or he is just lying through his teeth to protect Kong, who appointed Teh to his current position.

“It has been widely reported in all the media on July 28, 2010, that Kong has demanded that PKA make the relevant payments to KDSB bondholders.  

“Kong had then refused to consider various suggestions to hold the payments due in escrow, to be made to the rightful parties only after the court case has been concluded.  

“Such recklessness can only be interpreted as an attempt to bail out KDSB from its predicament when its bondholders exercise the undertaking which has been issued by KDSB, where KDSB will be forced to make the hundreds of millions in outstanding bond repayments,” he said.

Pua therefore challenged Teh and Kong to make publicly available all PKA minutes of meetings pertaining to the above payments in 2009 and 2010 to prove that it was not the latter who overturned the payment decisions.

“Based on Teh’s performance during the press conference where it was made obvious to anyone who watched it that he was completely incompetent and clueless over what was really going on in PKA and PKFZ, any sworn statements by him will carry very little value.

“He did not even know the number of legal cases PKA has against KDSB, despite them carrying some RM1.6 billion in value,” added the DAP national publicity secretary.

Earlier, Ong had blasted Teh for misleading the public on the two payments

He clarified that the payment due on June 30, 2009, was actually suspended by him but later overruled by the Finance Ministry headed by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

As for the second payment mentioned by Teh which was due on June 30, 2010, Ong said he had been removed from the cabinet on June 1.