PAC must act fast ï¿½ï¿½ prevent another multibillion-ringgit Matrade 2 scandal after the 10-year RM287 million Matrade 1 scandal

Media Statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Friday, 26^th November 2009:

PAC must act fast ï¿½ï¿½ prevent another multibillion-ringgit Matrade 2 scandal after the 10-year RM287 million Matrade 1 scandal

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) must act fast ï¿½ prevent another multibillion-ringgit Matrade 2 scandal after the 10-year RM287 million Matrade 1 scandal.

The PAC had previously held several meetings on the Matrade 1 scandal, but they were of no practical relevance or consequence as what the PAC did was to lock the stable door after the horses had bolted.

As far as I know, not a single sen had been recovered by the government despite solemn assurances in Parliament by the Ministers concerned to pursue legal actions and penalties against the defaulting parties ï¿½ with the Umno cronies laughing all the way to the bank with their ill-gotten multi-million ringgit NEP gains.

In the first Matrade scandal, the 24-storey Matrade building took some 10 years to be completed at a RM120 million cost overrun resulting in a final cost of RM287 million, i.e. at over 70 per cent of the original estimates of RM167 million. For years, the cracked faï¿½ade of the incomplete Matrade Building stood as shameful symbol of Third World Mentality in a land of First World Infrastructures in the very heart of the federal capital.

Now, a multi-billion ringgit Matrade 2 scandal is in the making.

The shocking claim by the Minister for International Trade and Industry Datuk Mustapha Mohamad in Parliament yesterday that the government was getting a RM628 million Matrade expo centre for free from Naza TTDI in a building-for-land deal, exchanging the centre for 62.5 acres of prime land in Kuala Lumpur for a project with a gross development value of RM15 billion.

Mustapha more than raised eye-brows when he said that the 62.5 acres of land were valued in 2007 at RM197 million or some RM72 per sq ft, when unconverted land for Hartamas/Duta areas in Kuala Lumpur is already over RM100 per sq ft.

The Cabinet must stop the whole Matrade-TTDI Naza project until it gets full clearance by the PAC as complying with the Prime Ministerï¿½s commitment to transparency, accountability, integrity and good governance ï¿½ in particular with regard to open tenders for mega government projects.

*Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor