Task force says Tiong ‘conspirator’, Kong Choy breached duty

(The Malaysian Insider) KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — The Cabinet will find out today the extent of the financial mismanagement and fraud surrounding the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project, and the main actors who are culpable.

Sources told The Malaysian Insider that Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing and others have been named as a “conspirators” who harmed PKFZ.

They also said that former Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy has been singled out for breach of duty to the Cabinet.

PKFZ which was initially projected to cost less than RM2 billion may now end up costing as much as RM12 billion by some estimates and had to be rescued with a RM4.6 billion government loan in 2007.

The Malaysian Insider has learnt the report claims breaches in duties, including by the former minister, and a possible conspiracy between external contractors and insiders to harm the Port Klang Authority (PKA), the developer of the PKFZ.

Chan, who served as minister of transport for five years beginning in 2003, was alleged in the report to have failed to comply with treasury guidelines and also failed to table proposals to the Cabinet, instead seeking approvals directly from then-prime minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The PKFZ task force report will leave Najib between a rock and a hard place. — Picture by Choo Choy May

He was also alleged to have failed to wait for a master plan for PKFZ to be ready and ignored a recommended mixed development strategy, pushing instead for PKFZ to be developed in a single phase.

The task force also unearthed what it said was a potential conspiracy among four parties to defraud PKA including the then general manager Datin Paduka OC Phang and Tiong, whose company Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) was the main contractor for the project.

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