Continuing his siege on Penang's undersea tunnel project, MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong today questioned why the state government did not know about the change of a shareholder in the special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the project.

He pointed out that a typical government contract would have a clause stating that authorities must be notified of any change of SPV shareholders.

"Any change of shareholders in the SPV, you must inform the state government. Otherwise, it (the change) will be null and void.

"You can ask any government. The clause would read, Sekiranya terdapat perubahan pegangan SPV, ia haruslah maklum kepada kerajaaan, jika kerajaan mendapati tidak patuhi, maka kontrak boleh ditamat serta-merta (In case of any changes in SPV shareholding, it must be notified to the government, and should the government find the rules were not followed, the contract can be immediately terminated).

"Standard clause," said Wee. 

“Maybe (Penang Chief Minister) Lim Guan Eng doesn't have this, but other states have it. The clause is to protect the government and to prevent the SPV from selling the contract to a third party and bagging the land,” Wee told a press conference at the MCA headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today. 

Thus, Wee said, Lim should have known about the change of shareholders in the SPV. 

Wee had last Saturday questioned why local fashion company Voir Holdings Bhd was a shareholder in the SPV for the tunnel project. 

The original shareholders in the SPV were Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd and China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC, 70 percent), Beijing Urban Construction Group (BUCG, 10 percent), Sri Tinggi Sdn Bhd (10 percent) and Juteras Sdn Bhd (10 percent). BUCG was removed after a fatal crane incident in Kuala Lumpur last year.

According to Wee, the latest shareholder composition is Zenith (47.12 percent), Kenanga Nominees (38.92 percent), Voir (13.21 percent) and Juteras (0.75 percent).

Lim had said that he was unaware of the change of shareholders in the SPV, and that the contract was given to Zenith – which is majority-owned by Voir, via an open tender.

However, since CRCC and BUCG are not in the SPV, Wee challenged the veracity of the Penang government's statement about the SPV shareholders on Mar 4, 2013.

“The two Chinese companies not in the SPV - how could the Penang government on 4 March 2013 reveal that CRCC and Zenith Construction jointly hold 70 percent in the SPV with RM3.5 million and RM4 billion paid-up capital respectively?”

“If CRCC is not in the SPV, how could the evaluation of 'open tender' be based on the RM4bil paid-up capital of CRCC? Camouflage? Is it a bait and switch?” he asked.