PKFZ – bottomless sink hole in Port Klang
By Sim Kwang Yang
No, the hottest news in Malaysia nowadays is not about the MIC party election this weekend. The MIC is a rich mosquito party that has nothing to do with the poor and marginalised Indians. Who wins there is hardly newsworthy!
The hottest news these days is the bottomless sink hole in Port Klang, as more and more information surfaces of how billions of tax-payer’s money has been sucked into that financial black hole created by bad planning and bad management.
As I write, on a Wednesday afternoon, the cabinet is discussing what to do what a report submitted by a task force to investigate into the irregularities committed in the PKFZ project. For once, I agree with Kho Su Khoon; nothing short of a Royal Commission of Enquiry with wide terms of reference to get to the bottom of the pork barrel will satisfy Malaysians who seek transparency, good governance, and accountability.
The original project cost was RM1.95 billion; now the projected costs hover around RM12 billion. That will cost each Malaysian RM500; that means you and me are going to have to pay RM500 each for something we will never use. How nice if that sum of money can be used to build roads in Sarawak. At RM1 million per Km, how many KMs of roads can be built with RM12 billion?
In the 1980s, when the BMF scandal incurring losses of RM2.5 billion surfaced, Lim Kit Siang who is prone to the use of hyperboles — called it the Mother of All Scandals. This RM12 billion PKFZ sandal can now be crowned as the Grandmother of all Scandals!
The 405 Ha land — originally farm land and mangrove swamps – was sold to Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd. in the 1990s by Kuala Lumut Development Corporation Bhd for RM65 million, at RM1.37 psf and RM2.98 psf in two parcels.
Then Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd. was appointed by the Port Klang Authority (PKA) – without an open tender – the turnkey contractor to design, finance, and construct the PKFZ. When the project was finished in 2004, it was sold over to PKA at RM25 psf.
Industry sources have pointed out that the fairer price for the land would be between RM17 to RM 19 psf. So how was the selling price of RM25 psf arrived at? Was there any prior certification by quantity surveyors or land valuers before payment was made to Kuala Dimensi? How much “extra” profit had been made by the turnkey contractor?
Managing Editor of the Star P Gunasegaram wrote in his piece entitled Lessons from PKFZ as follows:
