A DAP lawmaker has accused the government of trying to conceal its spending of RM27.8 billion via a little-known company.

Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming said Pembinaan PFI Sdn Bhd which – owned by the Finance Ministry – was set up to disburse RM20 billion under the 9th Malaysia Plan but has not been transparent in its spending.

"In the latest audit report, a second round of funding worth RM10 billion had been allocated to PFI, out of which RM7.57 billion had been set aside for 16 ministries or agencies to undertake 313 projects.

 

"What is worrying is that the government has tried to hide this spending from the budget," the DAP lawmaker said in a statement today.

 

He added that according to the company filings, all of PFI's borrowings come from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF)

 

"It has the third largest liability among all government-owned companies after Petronas and Khazanah," he said, adding that in comparison, the two giants are also the most profitable among government-owned companies since 2012.

 

The nature of PFI or private finance initiative, according to its company profile, is to "source for financing to undertake government projects" but the company, Ong said, does not even own a website.

 

The recent audit report also showed this small company has the third largest asset holdings as of 2012.

 

"The lands 'owned' by PFI is listed as part of its 'assets'. In reality, these 'assets' are merely land holdings which PFI doesn't own but were leased from the Federal Lands Commissioner (FLC)," the Serdang MP added.

 

According to Ong, FLC-owned lands were then sub-leased back from PFI after the lands were leased to them in the first place.

 

FLC, he said, has been paying rent to FPI every February and August, from 2012 to 2027, totalling RM29.2 billion.

 

Ong called upon the Finance Ministry to disclose the full list of projects and costs of each project run to ensure "full transparency in future projects".

 

"The auditor-general should also conduct a through investigation into PFI (to identify) whether government standard operating procedure (SOP) were followed in awarding its contracts," he said.