Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee emerged from a two-hour meeting with the Port Klang Authority, proclaiming they were dissatisfied with the outcome as it had raised “more questions than answers” on the RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Zone issue.
PAC chairman Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad told reporters this after a briefing and explanation from PKA general manager Datin Paduka O.C Phang, who was accompanied by an accountant and administrative staff and Transport Ministry officials, including its secretary-general Datuk Zakaria Bahari and representatives from the finance, planning and port divisions, at the Parliament building today.
He said the PAC found it had more questions on the financing of the PKFZ project and will call for another meeting in October with the Finance Ministry and Securities Commission to clarify these questions.
“We can consider this (the end of the meeting) as unfinished investigation as we are still not getting answers,” Shahrir said, adding that it was not because PKA was refusing to provide the answers.
He said the PAC needed input from two other parties – Finance Ministry’s Evaluation Department to explain the land purchase issue and Securities Commission to clarify the approval of bond issues amounting to RM4.6 billion.
“We hope with the Evaluation Department’s contribution and expertise, we can solve the question of the land’s real value and we will ask the Securities Commission to explain to us the approval of the three bonds issued.
“Only after listening to them, (also in) the presence of the Transport Ministry and PKA, will we be able to get a better, clearer and more established view of the issue,” Shahrir said, adding that PAC’s jurisdiction was on financing procedures and the use of public funds.
He said there were “too many questions” for the committee to draw any conclusions and in fact, they were still trying to understand the problem because “it is probably bigger than what we see in newspaper reports“.
Among the questions were why bonds were issued, the government’s commitment to the bonds, how the bonds were approved and why procedures were ignored.
During the press conference, Shahrir revealed figures from the Auditor-General’s (AG) report on PKA’s 2004 financial report.
He said PKA acquired liabilities amounting to RM2.9 billion and the AG advised it to garner enough financial resources to overcome the debt.
“In its reply, PKA said initial expenses were being paid for by its internal funds and that from year 2007, the project would come under the provisions of the 9th Malaysia Plan (9MP) and PKA would seek assistance from a Port Commission that would be set up.
“However, PKFZ did not come up in the 9MP and the issue of the commission – which was spoken about since 2004 – is another issue altogether with no conclusion.
“In the 2006 financial year report, the AG found PKA’s debts for its 2005 financial year, had ballooned to RM4.11 billion,” Shahrir said.
The AG cited that PKA had insufficient funds to manage the project as PKA’s cash and bank deposits stood at only RM231.75 million in December 2005, in addition to a tax surplus of RM26.63 million, he said.
“The AG asked that PKA find other sources for the RM4.11 billion and PKA’s reply to this was that it was requesting government loans and grants to help finance the project but this time, there was no mention of the port commission,” Shahrir said.
When pressed for more information on documents and evidence submitted to the PAC during the meeting, he declined in accordance with Standing Orders of Parliament.
Source: The Sun
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