Former PKA GM to be charged
(NST) – Former Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager Datin Paduka O.C. Phang and two others have been picked up for their roles in the multi-billion ringgit Port Klang Free Zone scandal.
They were arrested in a joint operation between police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and will be charged in the Klang court this afternoon.
The others arrested were architect Bernard Tan Seng Swee and Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd chief executive Steven Abok.
Sources said the arrests were the first of a series of at least five to be undertaken by police and the MACC.
The Public Accounts Committee had, in November, recommended that police and MACC investigated Phang and former transport minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy over their connection to the scandal.
The PAC probe began after former PKA chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng lodged a police report in August, alleging possible fraud amounting to RM1.5 billion.
The committee found that the three letters of support issued by Chan and the three letters of undertaking from Phang were an implicit government guarantee that PKA would be allowed to fulfil its obligations under the PKFZ development agreement.
The committee concluded that the pair must be investigated as their letters were issued without approval from the Finance Ministry.
Following Lee’s police report, police froze several bank accounts belonging to Kuala Dimensi, the turnkey developer for PKFZ.
The MACC, however, had begun investigations into the scandal “months before” the police report was lodged, according to its deputy chief commissioner Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohamed.
Discrepancies over PKFZ’s development were uncovered by a special task force comprising lawyers, accountants, quantity surveyors and building cost consultants from professional firms, set up by the Transport Ministry following an audit report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The 4.5-hectare PKFZ was initially conceived as a RM1.8 billion project.
The audit report released on May 28 showed that the project’s cost may ultimately spiral up to RM12.45 billion, six times the original estimate.
