Will Dato’ Seri Liow Tiong Lai next write to the Auditor-General on behalf of the Cabinet to instruct his office to audit the RM4 billion KLIA2 scandal by Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd?

 

Media Statement by Tony Pua, DAP National Publicity Secretary and Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, 8 January 2015:

 

 

We fully welcome and endorse the Transport Minister, Dato’ Seri Liow Tiong Lai’s expressed support for the Public Accounts Committee’s recommendation for the Auditor-General (A-G) to investigate the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) project, as reported by the Star on two days ago.

 

The PAC report had found many suspicious and controversial decisions which have resulted in not only an airport which more than doubled the original budget of RM1.7 billion and was delayed multiple times extensively.  The Report had found that the design of the airport had compromised Malaysia’s competitive advantage to serve and grow the low-cost carrier industry.

 

These included the decisions to locate KLIA2 at KLIA West, a site which has been documented by engineers as costly and ill-suited for airport construction; and the choice of a satellite-type terminal instead of a finger pier terminal as proposed by the airport consultants.

 

Despite the fact that it took exactly 6 weeks for him to endorse the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) key recommendation after sidestepping the question many times, it is certainly better late than never.

 

However, Dato’ Seri Liow must not stop at just giving a verbal endorsement of the PAC recommendations.  As the Minister responsible for the civil aviation industry in Malaysia, he must ensure that the specific instruction to carry out the audit by the A-G office is carried out.

 

It took 6 weeks for the Minister to verbally endorse the recommendations, hence we certainly hope that it will not take an even longer time for him to deliver the instructions for the special audit by the A-G.

 

We call upon the Minister of Transport to provide the relevant timeline and action plan for the above.  If Dato’ Seri Liow is able to ensure that the audit is carried out quickly, we will not hesitate to support and praise the Minister for taking concrete actions to execute his responsibility.

 

However, if the audit fails to materialise, I am certain that he will be pilloried for being another Barisan Nasional Minister who is “no action, talk only”.