THE BIGGEST SCANDAL EVER - PKFZ

The 405 hectare Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) transshipment hub that has been plague with financial scandals and poor management practices, is now the center of a heated debate as to how the scandal has been allowed to balloon to such unthinkable proportion. The initial financial outlay of RM 1.9 billion to develop PKFZ, can now grow to almost 12 billion (loan interest included).

With the release of the Price Waterhouse auditing report which shows damning mismanagement and massive financial irregularities, the game of denial can now be heard from those who are either directly or indirectly connected to the scandal.

The first to disclaim any role in the scandal is former Port Klang Authority Chairman and Deputy Finance Minister Chor Chee Heung, who said that all decisions regarding the acquisition of land and subsequent massive development of the PKFZ was decided before he was elected Non-Executive Chairman.

Even former MB Selangor Khir Toyo (he must have felt a sense of guilt) has declared that the BN state government then was not involved in the sale of the PKFZ land. If indeed, Khir Toyo and his former government was not involved, he need not come out to justify his innocence. Silence would have been better for him, at a time when so much of his wrong doings are slowly being exposed by the present Selangor state government.

On second thought, it is interesting to know whether Khir Toyo, at the time when he was the Selangor MB had known some of the problems faced by PKFZ, or was he completely in the dark over the problems. I would have thought that as the MB, he would have liked to be briefed constantly about this major development in the state, rather than not knowing at all.

The MACC is also being blamed for the scandal, for failing to act on 4 reports lodged by the opposition, according to DAP Assemblyman Ronnie Liu. He believe that the problem could have been arrested, if MACC had accentuated on the reports.

With the audit report out, and should MACC finds that there are evidences to prosecute the offenders, it will be interesting to see how the government will react when the offenders are politicians in their midst. This case will certainly be a test of the government's will of “not to leave any stones unturned'


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION