Ex-GM was ignorant
(The Star) KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee was taken aback by the poor management skills over the controversial Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) when a former general manager admitted that she did not know “what cash flow projection” means.
PAC chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said any business entrepreneur would have known about projection of income, expenditure and cash flow.
“You make projections of the best estimates that you can make of your expenditure and income because you can then monitor the project. The Port Klang Authority (PKA) management didn’t have this in place.
“Even a small business must have this form of projection,” he said after the committee questioned former PKA general manager Datin Paduka OC Phang at Parliament House yesterday.
Azmi said although Phang was cooperative, she claimed to not know or remember some facts of the issue.
On whether Phang knew the PKFZ project was in trouble during the time she was overseeing it, Azmi said she was PKFZ’s non-executive chairman and that she retired last year.
Asked if Phang should bear responsibility for the problems affecting the project, Azmi said:
“She admits that as the general manager she was responsible.”
Azmi said while the PKFZ project had been fully completed within the stipulated period, the committee found that there was lack of professionalism in its financial aspect.
The PAC will call in former PKA chairmen Tan Sri Dr Ting Chew Peh and Datuk Yap Pian Hon today.
Meanwhile, Bernama reports that Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing yesterday confirmed that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had contacted him for their investigation into the PKFZ controversy.
Tiong said he was asked by MACC twice to help facilitate their investigation and other witnesses were also called.
On the progress of the investigations, Tiong said in an interview with the Chinese media that he respected both the police and MACC’s right to carry out the investigation in their own professional way.
