Media Conference Statement
by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Thursday, 13th
November 2008 at 11 am:
Reminder to Azalina to table the
PriceWaterhouse report on the various financial scandals of Tourism
Ministry’s subsidiary, Pempena Sdn Bhd in Parliament as it is more than
a week since her promise to do so
This is to remind the Tourism Minister, Datuk
Azalina Othman that it is more than a week since her promise in
Parliament to table the PriceWaterhouse report on the various financial
scandals of Tourism Ministry’s subsidiary, Pempena Sdn. Bhd.
When replying to me in Parliament on Monday, 3rd November on the 2009
Budget, Azalina said that PriceWaterhouse report into the financial
scandals of Pempena would only be ready two days later on Wednesday, and
I specifically reminded her at the time to keep her undertaking to
present the PriceWaterhouse report in Parliament.
In fact, when she was further questioned on the PriceWaterhouse report,
the Deputy Speaker, Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who was in the
chair at the time, came to her rescue, urging MPs to “bersabar tunggu
hari Rabu”…”hingga laporan selesai”.,
In my speech on the 2009 budget on October 15, I had referred to the
Oct. 13, 2008 expose by the Sun in the report “Over the limit…PSD
ALLOWS MINISTER ONLY EIGHT STAFF, BUT 20 ON TOURISM MINISTRY’S PAYROLL”,
calling in Parliament for a full explanation for the serious allegation
that the tourism minister’s office “has excess baggage”, being
overstaffed as “the appointment of some 20 staff breaches the Public
Services Department (PSD)’s regulations limiting the appointments to
only eight” and that “it defies a Treasury circular on cost-cutting and
austerity”.
The Tourism Minister had in fact three special officers, five political
officers, one research officer, six information technology (IT) officers
and given support staff. As only the PSD can approve the new
appointments, the guidelines were circumvented by getting Tourism
Ministry subsidiary Pempena Sdn. Bhd and its affiliates Malaysian Travel
Business Travel Sdn. Bhd and SD Corp Communication Sdn. Bhd to pay their
salary.
One such appointment is Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun, who is the executive
director of Pempena and paid RM10,000 and is provided with a car and
driver.
I also raised the financial scandals in the various Tourism Ministry
projects including the RM30 million for Malaysia Kitchen and RM10 for
E-Tourism Portal. Another scandal is the Pempena Teksi Service (Pets)
which has lost millions of ringgit.
In her reply, Azalina admitted that all was
not well with the ministry’s various projects and subiidaries
especially, Pempena resulting in serious allegations of graft and
criminal breach of trust against senior officials in Pempena.
She said that this was why PriceWaterhouse
had been asked to conduct an audit report.
Azalina has asked MPs to be patient until the
PriceWaterhouse report is officially handed to her last Wednesday. When
is she going to keep her promise to table the PriceWaterhouse report
into Pempena financial scandals in Parliament?
*
Lim
Kit Siang, DAP
Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor
http://dapmalaysia.org