By The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — The Najib administration will come under pressure to take action against a former Cabinet minister and several senior officials after the Public Accounts Committee presents its report on the Port Klang Free Zone scandal in Parliament tomorrow.
PAC officials declined today disclose the identity of the former minister or the officials who they believe were negligent or guilty of criminal breach of trust.
But PAC committee member Tony Pua (DAP-PJ Utara) said: "Many people are responsible. There are nearly 10 people in the board itself. From the report, we know that many officials had been negligent in their duties.
“There are also elements whereby officials have not taken into account their responsibilities to the Government, and some have negligently caused massive losses to the PKFZ project.''
"We (PAC) only present the facts and our opinion, and we call on the relevant authorities to take the appropriate action against those we believe are negligent.''
Pua said the PAC report will implicate a former minister and civil servants. But he declined to reveal the names of those implicated.
The PAC report on the PKFZ will be the third probe into a project which could cost the government as much as RM12 billion.
Reports by an audit firm and a task force set up by the Port Klang Authority have uncovered
numerous acts of negligence, double charging, CBT and even failure of duty of care to the Cabinet.
The scandal first surfaced in 2007 and disclosures so far show that the fiasco straddles the tenures as transport minister of Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy and Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik.
Chan was criticised over his handling of the PKFZ project and did not contest Election 2008 while serious doubts were raised over the competence and integrity of the senior
management of PKFZ.
Former ministers, PKFZ management, and government officials appeared before the PAC, which is headed by Datuk Azmi Khalid.
Despite the shocking findings of the audit firm and the special task force of lawyers and other professionals, the government has not thrown the book at any of the main actors in this scandal.
Instead, it has set up another task force, comprising mainly senior civil servants.
The PAC report tomorrow will just be another reminder that the time for deliberations are over.
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