DEC 10 — Finally, the authorities have gotten off their behinds and are holding someone accountable for the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, a scandal that may cost the country up to RM12.5 billion.
In a joint-operation today, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and police swooped on former Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager Datin Paduka OC Phang, PKFZ contractor Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) chief operations officer Steven Abok, and architect Bernard Tan on charges of criminal breach of trust (CBT) and cheating.
Phang, a career civil servant, was charged with three counts of CBT amounting to RM254 million. She was named in reports by both a special task force and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which cited weak governance as one of the causes of the scandal.
Abok was jointly charged for two offences of cheating with Tan, who was also slapped with 24 other charges together with another unnamed person who has yet to be arrested.
But it is hard to believe that this matronly-looking woman had cooked up this dish of inflated land valuation and double charges all by herself. The question now is: who did Phang take orders from in the case that first came to light in 2007?
Did she take orders from former Transport Minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy? Or did it go back to the time of her long-time boss Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik? Both these former ministers and MCA leaders have pleaded forgetfulness in their testimonies to the PAC.
The PAC report was strangely silent on the role of KDSB owner, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, who is incidentally the Bintulu MP and chairman of the Barisan Nasional Back Benchers Club (BNBBC). He has accused current Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat of hounding him despite taking RM10 million and plane rides from him.
The MACC have yet to clear Ong of the allegations, and both he and Tiong are counter-suing each other over their claims.
But the central person is Phang, who will have her day in court on Jan 12, after a 26-day jaunt in the United States. It remains unclear if she will be the sacrificial lamb in this mammoth scandal or others higher up than her will also face the full weight of the law.
Both Abok and Tan also appear to be bit players in this long-drawn drama that has involved politicians from several Barisan Nasional parties from both the peninsula to Sarawak. Are these men truly the masterminds together with Phang? Or just the fall guys?
It is a classic whodunnit.
And the Klang Sessions Court is just another step in a long journey to find out who actually turned the PKFZ from an ambitious project to enhance Port Klang into a national embarrassment.
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