Pulau Betong assemblyman Muhammad Farid Saad has lambasted the Penang government for its "inefficiency and incompetency" in managing a small five-storey carpark project at the foot of Penang Hill.

He said the project has been delayed again, after being extended in November last year and will only be completed on Aug 31.

This shows that the state government is not transparent in telling the public why the project had failed, he added.

Farid  ( right ) said that earlier excuses given for the delay - like a big underground boulder was hampering the building of the multi-tier carpark should have been resolved earlier.

"The rakyat has started to think. If the state government finds it a recurring problem to build only a small carpark, how are they to build an undersea tunnel which cost billions?" Farid asked at a press conference at the car park site today.

"The conclusion is the state failed to implement a small project worth RM11 million. Are they able to build a tunnel worth RM6 billion? Penang state's CAT (competency, accountability and transparency) philosophy also failed to be reflected in this matter," he  added.

By undersea tunnel, Farid was referring to the Penang government's plan to build the RM6.3 billion project, dubbed the third-link to tackle traffic congestion by linking the island with the mainland in Butterworth.

Ambition morphs into nightmare

The multi-storey project, dubbed Kancil Carpark, was deemed as such because it could only hold small Perodua Kancil cars and was demolished in 2012 on the recommendation of a special

panel .

It has 112 parking lots and bays for six tourist buses to stop on a 0.62 acre land parcel at the foot of the iconic hill but delays in the project have resulted in  traffic congestion and illegal parking around the area.

Chief minister Lim Guan Eng said the RM5 million project was approved in 2007 by the previous BN state government and Tourism Minister, and was then handed over to the Penang Development Corporation Consultancy (PDCC), a company under state owned development arm  - PDC.

Today, The New Straits Times reported that PDCC deputy general manager Iskandar Basha Abdul Kadir  blaming the delay on the discovery of an underground boulder but said that the carpark is 65 percent complete.

Farid said the project may be small and unimportant for the state government but for Penangites, it held much meaning as it is the "symbol of the CAT administration".

"But the project shows that the state's has not spend the people's money wisely. This project has become the symbol of non-transparency and non-accountability of the Pakatan Rakyat government led by DAP," he said.

"Where is the transparency, accountability and more so, their efficiency. They can't run away from their responsibilities," he added.

He urged the CM to come clean on the matter and explain why the project has been delayed and postponed repeatedly.

The delay is acceptable if it is due to something reasonable or beyond the expectation of the contractor, he said.

"If this happens again, the contractor should be penalised with LAD -. Liquidated and Ascertained Damages," Farid noted.

"The carpark used to be called ‘kancil’but after comparing the building and rebuilding cost, it is no longer kancil but had become a Camry and now a Mercedes Benz," he quipped.