Kong Choy charged over PKFZ scandal

the malaysian insider

February 28, 2011By Debra Chong

PUTRAJAYA, Feb 28 — Former transport minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy was today charged with three counts of cheating over the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project at the Sessions Court here, and faces up to five years’ jail on each count.

He was charged with deceiving then prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi over renovation works at the PKFZ site between 2004 and 2006.

Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail is present as prosecutor.

Both parties have agreed for bail to be set at RM1 million.

Another former transport minister — Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik — has also been hauled up over irregularities with the shipping hub project.

The former MCA president was charged in July last year under Section 418 of the Penal Code for misleading the Cabinet in 2002, into agreeing to purchase 999.5 acres of land in Pulau Indah for the PKFZ project.

Dr Ling, 67, was alleged to have committed the offence at the Prime Minister’s Office here between September 25 and November 6, 2002.

If convicted he faces imprisonment of up to seven years. The PKFZ project was mooted during Dr Ling’s tenure as transport minister and the cost of the project, initially estimated at less than RM2 billion, more than doubled to RM4.6 billion by 2007.

The cost of the project has been further projected to swell to as much as RM12.5 billion due to interest costs from deferred payments if the trans-shipment hub fails to perform.


Tun Ling Liong Sik charged
www.malaysiakini.com

29 July 2010

Former transport minister Tun Ling Liong Sik is to be charged at the Putrajaya Sessions Court over his involvement in the multi-billion ringgit Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

Ling, who is also former MCA president, is by far the most prominent politicians to be nabbed for corruption in recent years.

Rumours of a very important personality (VIP) to be charged have sent dozens of journalists, included those from foreign wire services, camping at the court complex early this morning.

Most of them gathered at the lobby and main entrance of the courthouse. while a couple have stationed themselves in and outside the courtroom.

At 4pm, attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail and three DPPs, including head of prosecution Tun Abdul Majid Hamzah, arrived in court without speaking to the journalists. The other two were Manoj Kurup and Dzulkifli Ahmad.

Ling appeared in court at 4.45pm accompanied by his wife Ena and two sons. He proceeded to sit in the dock.

It is believed that the charge is related to the troubled multi-billion ringgit Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

Last November, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had recommended in its report on the PKFZ controversy that former transport minister Chan Kong Choy and former Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager OC Phang be probed for CBT (criminal breach of trust).

This was over the wrongful issuance of three letters of support by Chan and three letters of undertaking by Phang without Finance Ministry approval.

PAC said that it was informed by the attorney-general that the letters were implicitly a form of guarantee

from the government to ensure that there would be allocations for PKA to enable it to meet its obligations under the development agreement.

PKFZ, a commercial and industrial project south of the capital, was conceived as a RM1.82 billion venture constructed over 1,000 acres.

However costs are now expected to balloon to RM12.5 billion, making the affair one of the country’s biggest financial scandals and a major embarrassment for the government.

Probes into the project’s financial records since then have revealed instances of corruption, cases of conflict of interest as well as breach of trust.

Ling is one of the very rare top politicians in Malaysia to be charged with corruption.

In 2004, former land and cooperative development minister Kasitah Gaddam was charged in the Sessions Court with corrupt practice and cheating, the first cabinet member to be charged with such crimes. He was freed by the court without his defence being called last year.

Another top politician who was charged for corruption was the late Harun Idris, the Selangor menteri besar from 1964 to 1976. He was slapped with a six-year jail sentence but served three years behind bar before being pardoned by the King in 1981 on the advice of then new prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.