Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Monday, 11^th May 2009: 

Stop appointing MCA lackeys as PKA Chairman as Lee Hwa Beng should be sacked instead of being reappointed for his inefficient, incompetent and unprofessional conduct over release of the PwC report on PKFZ scandal

Datuk Lee Hwa Beng should have been sacked instead of being re-appointed as Port Klang Authority (PKA) Chairman as he is not efficient, competent or professional about the release of the PricewaterhouseCooper report on the mega-billion ringgit Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

The Edge weekly (April 27 – May3, 2009) which carried the cover story of “Total PKFZ bill – RM8 billion?” published a letter from Datuk Lee Hwa Beng responding to the Edge expose, saying that the Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat had in early April made a statement that the release of the PKFZ report was “up to the PKA” but as his term as PKA Chairman “had technically expired on March 31 this year, I was not able to respond” to the Edge report.

This however did not prevent him from saying that he had read the PwC final report and saying that it “cannot be released while awaiting declassification by other government departments”.

I had in my media statement of April 28 posed this question to the Transport Minister:

“Can Ong explain his Ministerial inefficiency and incompetence in allowing the post of PKA Chairman to remain vacant from March 31, when he should have known that it is important to either re-appoint Lee or appoint a new Chairman so that no one could make the excuse that no decision could be made during the month of April on the publication of the PwC report on PKFZ scandal as the post of PKA Chairman is vacant!”

There was no answer from Ong but he promptly re-appointed Lee as PKA Chairman, who has since come out with a new reason for the delay in the release of the PwC Report on the PKFZ scandal - the “technical issue” that the report could only be released with the consent of PwC.

Lee said after the expiry of Ong’s one-week deadline for the release of the PwC report that he had written to the PwC on April 30 to seek its consent and PwC replied on May 4 that consent will be given subject to “certain terms and conditions”.

This is most ridiculous. Who owns the PwC report on the PKFZ scandal – the PwC or PKA? How much did PKA pay PwC for the PKFZ audit? Or is the PKA delinquent in owing money to PwC for its audit report?

What are these “certain terms and conditions” for the release of the PwC report when all along the public had been told the problem causing the delay of the release was with the declassification under the Official Secrets Act by the relevant Ministries?

Why didn’t both Ong and Lee know beforehand about this “consent” required to be sought from the PwC although it is the PKA who is paying PwC for the audit?

This is why Lee should be sacked instead of being re-appointed as PKA for such inefficient, incompetent and unprofessional conduct.

It is time to stop appointing MCA lackeys as PKA Chairman – highlighted by the PKFZ scandal which has ballooned from RM1.8 billion in 2002 under Datuk Seri Ling Liong Sik as Transport Minister, to RM4.6 billion under Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy and now to the frightening figure quoted by local and foreign media as RM12 billion under Ong.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor