November 20, 2010
PETALING JAYA, Nov 20 — Lim Guan Eng has accused Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha of favouring private companies above the public by questioning the guarantee from the Penang Electrified Double Track Project (EDTP) contractor on flooding. The Penang Chief Minister pointed out that the Transport Ministry had issued guarantee letters to private companies in the RM12.85 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.
“Kong Cho Ha should explain what is wrong for MMC-Gamuda JV Sdn Bhd to give letters of guarantee protecting the public against floods when the Transport Ministry can issue letters of guarantee to private companies embroiled in the RM 12.85 billion Port Klang Free Trade Zone scandal?” said Lim in a statement today.
“Or are private companies more important than the public?” he asked.\
Last November, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had recommended that former Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy and former Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager Datin Paduka O.C. Phang must be investigated for criminal breach of trust in the PKFZ scandal.
The PAC found both Chan and Phang to have breached the Financial Procedure Act 1957 by issuing three letters of support and three letters of undertaking without the approval of the Finance Ministry.
According to the PAC, the Attorney-General had said that the three support letters issued by Chan and the three letters of undertaking issued by the general manager of PKA were an implicit government guarantee that PKA would be allowed to fulfil its obligations under the PKFZ development agreement.
Kong, however, has recently insisted that Penang should not have issued the stop-work order on the RM13 billion project in the first place, despite Lim lifting the order two days ago after receiving a guarantee letter from MMC-Gamuda Joint Venture Sdn Bhd.
Lim said the contractor had agreed in writing to bear all losses in the event of a flood caused by the project, as well as to demolish structures that caused water to overflow during floods.
“Kong’s insistence that the stop-work order should not have been issued in the first place because the contractor can give any briefings, misses the critical point of protecting public interest with written letters of guarantee,” said Lim.
“To date, the contractor has been co-operative and not protested when the stop-work order was issued. Only Kong has protested,” added the DAP secretary-general.
Lim defended his insistence on a written guarantee from the contractor, pointing out that normal flood control measures taken by the double-track railway project contractor in Kedah had failed to mitigate the impact of the flood.
“The state government has thereby chosen to adopt an aggressive pro-active approach in flood crisis management by adopting pre-emptive measures aimed at either avoiding a mitigating the adverse impact,” he said.
“Kong should realize that the peole’s homes, livelihood and billions of ringgit in investments high-tech industrial parks in Prai and Bukit Minyak are at stake,” he added.
He also denied Kong’s accusations that Penang was purposely obstructing Putrajaya by refusing to co-operate with the federal government on mega projects.
“Such attacks are baseless as the state government would not have otherwise approved this RM13 billion project,” said Lim.
The Penang chief minister then pronounced an end to the verbal war, saying: “The matter is closed when the contractor has fully complied with the state government’s requirement of a written guarantee.”
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