So, was any payment made or no payment was made?
Dear YAB Lim Guan Eng,
I am rather confused about the statement that you issued yesterday (21 Jan 2018) that said that kickbacks are impossible based on two points. And I quote them verbatim from your statement.
1. The BN media reports of kickbacks to Penang state government politicians is clearly a lie because, firstly, how can there be kickbacks when not a single cent had been paid for the tunnel project.
2. Secondly, there was no mention that the Independent Checking Engineer(ICE) is part of this conspiracy. It would be impossible for any payment whether by cash or land swap by the state government to the contractor, unless the ICE verifies and supports such claims.
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The reason I am confused is that your first point said not a single sen has been made but your second statement then he said that a ICE checks the claims before making payments.
And in your statement dated just 2 days earlier on 19 Jan 2018, you confirmed that RM208mil was payment in the form of state land given was indeed made for the 3 roads component of the RM6.34b tunnel project. On top of that, you had also said that RM11.2mil payment was also made to the ICE.
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So, was any payment made or no payment was made? Or is prime sea-side state land considered of no value hence it is not considered as not a single sen of payment ever being made?
Also, you said the ICE was appointed in 2014 while YB Lim Hock Seng had confirmed that the value of the studies were already set earlier at RM305mil in the state assembly in 2013 – this means that the ICE had no part to play in determining the cost of the studies.
Indeed, the role of the ICE would be to determine if a payment should be made and does not play any role whether the cost of the reports are over-valued – either by 4 folds or 5 folds or 1,000 folds – or not.
In fact, since RM208mil was paid – leaving RM96mil for the reports for the Penang portion of which both will total RM305mil, this corresponds to the breakdown given by YB Lim Hock Seng numerous times – thus no actual reduction for the fees for the reports seem possible.
And if indeed payment in the form of state land was made as you had said days earlier and the logic that you used in your statement yesterday would this mean that kick-backs are now possible?
Hoping to receive an answer from you to clear this confusion, YAB Lim.
Thanks,
Eric See-To
