Media Statement by Tony Pua in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, 12^th August 2009:

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief should resign or be removed for demonstrating complete incompetence over the investigation of the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone mega-scandal

MACC Chief Commissioner, Dato' Sri Haji Ahmad Said bin Hamdan should be sacked for demonstrating sheer incompetence in the investigations over the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) RM12.5 billions scandal.

The PKFZ special taskforce which was set up only in June 2009 has within a period of 3 months determined with strong evidence of about RM1 billion in fees charged by PKFZ developer, Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) “to be either over-charged, unsubstantiated or even possibly fraudulent”. This amount which is described by the taskforce as “the tip of the iceberg” constitutes nearly 30% of the overall project cost of RM3.522 billion, excluding interest costs.

The scandal includes possible fraudulent claims on electrical infrastructure worth RM55.8mil and 33kv supply works and civil infrastructure works worth RM83mil which were never carried out. No documents and justifications were also provided for more than RM550 million in charges and variation orders.

Despite the fact that the first Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) report which was made way back in December 2004, and as many as 3 further subsequent reports were made with regards to PKFZ by Ronnie Liu on various corruption, abuse of power and mismanagement allegations, the ACA and subsequently, MACC has found absolutely nothing worthy of detailed investigation on the project and closed all the above files.

Even after the chairman of Port Klang Authority (PKA) which owns PKFZ had himself filed an MACC report in May 2009 based on the Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) report on PKFZ, the commission has continued to make little or no progress on the investigations.

In fact, despite the size and scale of the scandal which implicates corruption and abuse of power to the highest levels, including several ministers and prominent elected representatives, MACC has not even conducted any interviews with the ministers, including Tun Ling Liong Sik and Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy, as well as the other BN politicians.

Hence the findings of fraud and over-charging by the PKFZ special taskforce has proven the complete failure, ineffectiveness and negligence by Ahmad Said and MACC, whether intentional or otherwise for the latter could not detect any of the various misdeeds which added up to RM1 billion of tax-payers' monies. In line with Najib's call for “people first, performance now”, Ahmad Said must be held accountable and hence resign or be removed from his position.

What makes the whole circumstance repulsive is the fact that while MACC had neglected mega-scandals like PKFZ, they have left no stones unturned in their efforts to detect corruption among DAP and Pakatan Rakyat representatives in Selangor, even if it means going to the level of check every RM100 receipts!

It is MACC's reckless and relentless pursuit of such political victimisation that the political secretary to Selangor state executive councillor, Ean Yong Hian Wah, the late Teoh Beng Hock was found dead at the premises of MACC, all for a RM2,400 transaction involving the purchase of Malaysian flags.

A new Chief Commissioner should be appointed to ensure that MACC stops being a political tool of the Barisan Nasional government to harrass DAP and Pakatan Rakyat MPs and state assemblymen whose total combined allocations does not exceed RM20 million while completely neglecting the real corrupt sharks which have fleeced the country of billions of ringgit.

* Tony Pua Kiam Wee, DAP National Publicity Secretary & MP for Petaling Jaya Utara