Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai and Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd (MAHB) have been slammed for allegedly "passing the buck" on urgings for an audit on the KLIA2 "scandal".

In a statement today, Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said the two have been giving nothing but excuses over the Public Accounts Committee's (PAC) recommendation for the auditor-general to audit MAHB over the new airport.

"Are both MAHB and the Ministry of Transport both colluding and playing the quiet 'tai chi' game of passing the buck around the table in the hope that the issue will just magically disappear from the radar of the scrutinising public?"

Pua noted how while MAHB director Badlisham Ghazali publicly declared he“welcomed" PAC's proposal, he claimed the director "repeated placed conditions for such an audit to happen".

For example, Badlisham said he would "discuss the type of audit with the Transport Ministry first".

Pua also cited Badlisham saying yesterday that an audit would require the approval of shareholders as they "need to understand (the purpose of the auditing process) and agree to it before we proceed".

"He gave the excuse that MAHB gets 'audited and reviewed so many times', they 'just don't want it to overlap'," added the DAP MP.

"The response given by the managing director of MAHB, it appears that he does not recognise the severity of the findings of the PAC and clearly feels that the audit by the auditor-general is a waste of his time."

Deafening silence from Liow

Pua also took a jibe at Liow and his ministry for keeping mum on the issue despite serious findings in the PAC report.

"Liow ( right ) has on the other hand kept a deafening silence on the serious findings of the report as it the report is trivial or nothing to do with his ministry.

"The shocking lack of action, responsibility and ownership of the KLIA2 scandal under the ministry's care is completely unacceptable," he said.

On Nov 25 the PAC tabled in Parliament its scathing report against MAHB on the low cost terminal project, calling for an audit to be conducted on MAHB and the KLIA2 project, to further identify the discrepancies.

According to Pua, PAC in its report found the main cause of problems in KLIA2 was due to mismanagement and questionable decision-making by the MAHB management.

"The PAC has found that the main cause of the problems in KLIA2 including the cost which ballooned from RM1.7 billion to RM4 billion and its repeated delay in completion was due to mismanagement.

"These included the questionable decisions to locate KLIA2 at KLIA West, a site which has been documented by engineers as costly and ill-suited for airport construction and the choice of a satellite-type terminal instead of a finger pier terminal as proposed by the airport consultants."

Pua urged Khazanah Nasional as the single largest shareholder of MAHB to "demand the top management of MAHB to stop dilly-dallying and immediately initiate steps to 'welcome' the auditor-general into the company," he said.