Youth and Sports Minister Azalina Othman Said must make public all details involving the proposed half-a-billion ringgit sports academy in United Kingdom.

She should also include a complete cost breakdown of the project which is estimated to be around RM490 million, demanded Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang in a terse statement today.

Lim lambasted the minister and her officials for providing conflicting answers regarding the project over the past few days.

"It is clear from these confused answers that there is total lack of openness, accountability and transparency in the proposed ... high-performance sports training centre, as if the minister and her officials have a lot to hide from public knowledge and scrutiny," he said.

The opposition leader argued that this reinforced "suspicion that the whole concept had been mooted not so much to raise sports standards and promote sports talents, but for empire-building as well as to create opportunities for overseas junkets by Sports Ministry officials".

He said the project should be frozen until Azalina can provide justification for the costly project.

Heritage buildings

According to Plantations and Commodities Minister Peter Chin, the existing Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre buildings outside London which had been earmarked for the proposed centre were classified as heritage buildings .

It is unclear whether approval would be forthcoming from the British authorities to turn the Malaysian government-owned site - which claims to be a Roman settlement 2,000 years ago - into a modern high-performance sports centre.

Given this, Lim wants to know why Azalina is pushing ahead with the proposal as if approval from the British authorities was a foregone conclusion.

Azalina told Parliament on Monday that the government has approved the building of the controversial sports academy for Malaysian athletes to adapt to the cold weather.

Later, the sports minister clarified that the RM490 million was not a one-off allocation but might stretch over a 10-year period.

According to the opposition leader, there was a general consensus among members of parliament cutting across party lines, questioning the merit and validity of the project.