The Sun
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Special audit on free zone
Tee Keat to name PKFZ chairman soon
KUALA LUMPUR: The new Port Klang Authority chairman wll be directed to conduct a special audit on the accounts relating to the controversial Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project.
Transport Miniter Datuk Ong Tee Keat said he would make an announcement soon on the new chairman.
"Immediately after the appointment, I am going to direct him to conduct a special audit on all the accounts.
"I am still waiting for the royal consent on the candidate," he said when asked if the chairman would be from MCA, as with previous Port Klang Authority chairmen.
The current chairman is Datuk Chor Chee Heung, who was reappointed Deputy Home Minister in the new Cabinet.
It is learnt that former Subang Jaya assemblyman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng may be the new Port Klang chairman.
Ong had on April 7 promised to reveal how the RM4.6 bil soft loan to the PKFZ was spent.
The cost of the PKFZ project was said to have ballooned from RM1.845 bil to RM4.632 bil by the time the project was completed over four years.
However, he had also said he would not bow to pressure from the Opposition and that he would reveal details of the project at his own pace.
Asked if Chor had been negligent in running the PKFZ, as matters under it came directly under the Port Klang Authority, Ong said he was "not going to play judge".
"However, we must do the needful in the name of transparency and because of the challenges ahead," he said.
Ong also asked Malaysians eager for answer to the project, criticised as a "white elephant" for failing to attract investors despite the huge cost, to be patient for the details.
"We want the project to be successful. I have been doing something. I needed to familiarise myself with the entire episode and I have been going through all the documents that have been handed to me.
"It is my duty to find out more," he said.
