Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has lambasted Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (Prasarana) for its contradictory statements when justifying why it rejected Penang’s offer of RM10 million annually for public transport.

Lim said Prasarana’s group managing director Shahril Mokhtar’s statement yesterday that accepting Penang’s offer of an annual grant to provide free public bus services would worsen the financial position of the company was akin to “pukul mulut sendiri” (self-incriminatory).

He was upset with the statement, saying he would not accept “such nonsense” from Prasarana, which owns and operates the RapidPenang bus services in the state.

He also described Shahril’s response as “illogical” and reminded him that he was dealing with the state government of Penang.

“It’s whether you want it or not. If you do, sit and discuss with us. We won’t stand such nonsense from Prasarana any more,” Lim said in a press conference today.

“The statement itself is self-contradictory. When we talk of providing the RM10 million, they talk about profits and losses,” he said.

“But when they pay bonuses (between one-and-a-half and two months) despite RM763 million losses in 2011, according to the Auditor-General’s report, they said they incurred losses as they provided public services,” he added.

Lim said Prasarana should just hand over the bus operations to the state government if it feels that it would incur losses when doing it.

“Why can’t we do it? Because public transport is under the federal government’s jurisdiction. We can’t do it, so don’t blame us for this,” he said.

Lim said those who continue to criticise the state over its inability to provide public transport should be aware that they had no power to do so.

‘Critics never even sat on buses’

“But some of those who criticise us never even sat on buses, they are speaking based only on theories,” he added.

In a statement yesterday, Shahril also said the company had held an open book discussion with state officials and had highlighted that it would lose much more if free rides were offered during peak hours, despite the grant from the state government.

The peak hours are from 6am to 9am and 4.30pm to 8.30pm.

Shahril told Lim not to “manipulate” the matter, saying the company was awaiting a response from the state, adding that the grant offered was less than the revenue generated by RapidPenang.

 “However, the state government must demonstrate its sincerity and earnestness in addressing the plight of the people as traffic congestion worsens in the state,” Shahril said.

He was responding to Lim’s statement on Sunday that Prasarana’s RM763 million losses in 2011 could be reduced by accepting the RM10 million annual grant offered by the Penang government  to provide free rides during peak hours.