SUARA WARGA PERAK

Thursday, July 2, 2009

PKFZ report: Longer wait for MPs

At 10am to day i stood up to inform the Speaker that I want to invoke a point of order in relation to the PKFZ.
I cited Standing Order 20 of PArliament which, reads as follows
20(1) Papers shall be presented only by Speaker, a minister or the Chairmman of a Committee, and shall be sent to the Setiausaha.
2) Every paper a copy of which is so received by the Secretary shall be deemed to have been presented to the house and ordered to lie upon the table.

The Minister of Transport stated on 15June that 300 copies of PricewaterhouseCoopers on the PKFZ scandle reports have been served on the Secretary(Clerk) of Parliamnet. Question is why it has not been table to date and as to day is the last day of this session of Parlaiment.

The rest is news from MalaysiaKini

Parliamentarians will not see the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit report and its appendix on the Port Klang Free Trade (PKFZ) until the Public Accounts Committee has completed its investigation on the matter.

House Deputy Speaker Ronald Kiandee said this today when he was asked when the report would be released to the parliamentarians.

"The PAC has yet to have a final meeting on the matter... they have yet to arrive at a decision. Let them decide and the full report will be revealed," he said.

This revelation means that parliamentarians will only be able to look at the report in full at the next Parliament sitting in December. The current sitting ends today.

Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat last week said that 300 copies of the PwC audit report have been passed to the Parliament secretariat and it was up to the latter's prerogative as to when these reports will be distributed.
The deputy speaker however today said that the copies of the report were attained by the secretariat on its capacity as the secretariat of PAC because the reports were needed by the PAC.

The deputy speaker stressed that he does not want the report to be released in phases but rather be discussed in its entirety when it is ready.

"Trust me, the reports are not locked in a metal chest," he said.

When pressed on the fact that Ong had promised the MPs will attain a copy of the report by the end of this session's sitting, the deputy speaker said that he had already given his explanation on the issue and that whatever that had been reported in the press on the matter was immaterial.

Question posed by Kula

The deputy speaker refused to answer any further questions on
the matter even when asked why the secretariat needed 300 copies of the report.

Kiandee was responding to a question posed by M Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat).

Yesterday it was revealed that PAC will be calling in some big names to complete its probe into the PKFZ scandal.

According to the audit report, PKFZ's development cost may eventually balloon to a staggering RM12.5 billion from an initial cost of less than RM2 billion.

Other key issues highlighted in the report include weak project management, cost overruns and conflict of interest.

The report, released in May, had named three top politicians as among those involved in the scandal, with two being cited as having a conflict of interest.

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