Unfazed by the threat of legal action hanging over his head, PAS’ Temerloh MP Nasrudin Hassan will not apologise for claims he made against Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Nasrudin said Lim's claim that he defamed the chief minister with “lies” pertaining to the Penang undersea tunnel project and state budget deficits is “without basis”.

In a Facebook posting today, Nasrudin sought to explain his earlier remarks, which resulted in Lim demanding he “withdraws his lies and apologises” within 24 hours or face legal action if Nasrudin does not.

Yesterday, Lim rebutted Nasrudin by saying that the tunnel project costs RM3.6 billion and was awarded via open tender, not RM4.63 billion via direct negotiation as Nasrudin had claimed.

In addition, Lim, who is DAP secretary-general, said Penang has never recorded a single year of budget deficit under the Pakatan Rakyat’s administration, but has budget surpluses every year.

Nasrudin replied claiming that the tender process for the Penang tunnel had a pre-qualification process and screening, and hence was more akin to a managed tender, rather than an open tender.

In addition, he said, the Penang government had on April 28, 2011, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG) - which came even before the pre-qualification process on Nov 14, 2011.

BUCG is one of the companies that won the contract to build the tunnel and operate it for 30 years.

Project winner picked before tender process?

“Has the Penang government actually picked the winner of this megaproject even before the tender process?

“I think anyone who is familiar with implementing contracts and projects will surmise that this is not an open tender, as if BUCG is in a privileged position before the tender process is done, since the MOU was signed in April 2011,” Nasrudin said, adding that this was just one of many issues of contention.

Lim had said in a March 2012 statement that the MOU has no legal weight because the state government had made clear its intention to hold an open tender, but the MOUs are a positive sign of interest from China in Penang’s projects.

As for the cost for the project that he cited, Nasrudin said it was based on an estimate because, prior to Lim’s statement, the cost of the project was not disclosed.

With the disclosure, he said this meant that the cost of the tunnel is RM129 million per kilometre, compared with the RM161 per kilometer of another controversial project, the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex).

“With the average cost of the Kidex Skyway at RM161 million per kilometre, as often cited by (Selangor Menteri Besar) Khalid Ibrahim’s critics, shouldn’t the same questions be raised about this Penang megaproject?” Nasrudin asked.

'Projected 2014 budget deficit RM255.4 million'

As for the state budget, Nasrudin said he was referring to the budgets tabled annually by Lim at the state assembly sittings, not figures that the auditor-general had certified.

He said in the 2014 state budget Lim tabled, the projected budget deficit is RM255.4 million and in 2013, the figure is RM262.04.

He added that if it wasn’t a 303 percent increase in land sales in 2012, as reported by the auditor-general, it is likely that Penang would indeed face a deficit.

“What I want to raise is that with a projected budget deficit each year, why is the state government adamant in implementing this megaproject, even though the returns from the Penang Second Bridge are still uncertain,” he asked.