The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on the RM1.6 billion Eurocopter deal was distributed to members of parliament last Thursday for evaluation, said PAC chief Azmi Khalid today.

azmi khalid 02 "It is up to the members to debate and make their own conclusions. We have examined the matter according to procedures, and the report was done verbatim," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Azmi was speaking to reporters after chairing a PAC meeting this afternoon.

On another matter, Azmi said a report on the purchase of Bank Antarabangsa Indonesia by Maybank Berhad would be handed over to parliamentarians soon.

Meanwhile, touching on the Pempena issue, he said that PAC was in the early stage of investigation and it would only obtain its findings by the end of this month when the National Audit Report was completed.

"We do not have any detailed information at the moment. We do not want to make any conclusions. What we have right now is a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the audit firm appointed by the Tourism Ministry to conduct investigations," he said.

Pempena Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary company of Tourism Malaysia, was alleged to have been involved in a number oif suspicious investment projects resulting in possible lost of RM50 million.

Among other subsidiary companies under Pempena are Malaysia Kitchen, Biro Nation Travel, PEPS and the Awana Chelsea Restaurant.

No procedural abuse

Previously, DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang took Azmi to task for not producing the Eurocopter report despite promising on Nov 11 to do so in 'two or three days'.

helicopter military eurocopter cougor ec 725 troop transporter He said the report must be tabled in Parliament latest by Dec 3, so that he could give the necessary 14-day notice required for a motion to be debated on the last parliamentary sitting of the current budget meeting on Dec 18.

According to Lim, it would be useless for Azmi to table the PAC report after Dec 3 because it would not be possible for MPs to give the requisite notice to debate it as a specific motion.

On Nov 3, Azmi had revealed that PAC did not find any procedural abuse in the Eurocopter tender process.

However, the powerful committee was concerned that there was no physical examination on the 12 Eurocopter helicopters which the government wanted to purchase.