‘Penang govt kept repeating blunder’

In print: A screengrab from the video of Dr Wee showing a copy of the March 1, 2013, edition of

PETALING JAYA: The Penang government blundered at least six times when it repeatedly claimed that the paid-up capital of the special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the state’s mega project amounted to RM4.5492bil, said Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

The MCA deputy president said these blunders took place between March and April 2013.

“When the successful tenderer was announced for the mega project, consisting of three main roads and an undersea tunnel, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng did not clearly state that the China Railway Constuction Corporation Ltd (CRCC) was only a building contractor.

“Instead, CRCC was treated as a shareholder in the joint venture consortium of the SPV,” said Dr Wee.

“Under our persistent pressure, he finally made public the agreement and everything came to light.

“It is clearly stated that the successful bidder consortium consisted of only four entities and not only was CRCC conspicuously absent, but the paid-up capital was also a far cry from RM4.5492bil.

“As I had previously stated, the state secretary announced on March 4, 2013, that the SPV’s paid-up capital was RM4.5492bil and thereby complied with the state government’s minimum paid-up capital of RM381mil.

“Clearly, CRCC’s RM4bil paid-up capital was included in the calculation,” Dr Wee said in a five-minute video uploaded on his Facebook page yesterday.

Through printouts of Facebook postings, blog postings and pages from the state-run Buletin Mutiara, Dr Wee showed Lim repeating several times that the paid-up capital of the SPV was RM4.5492bil.

From documented records, Lim mentioned at least four times that the SPV’s paid-up capital was RM4.5492bil, said Dr Wee.

The other times were when the state secretary issued a statement on March 4, 2013, and in a Buletin Mutiara article published on March 1, 2013.

“Treating a contractor purely engaged for building construction as a party in the consortium of the SPV is clearly an intentional misrepresentation,” Dr Wee said.

He also questioned why the figure was allowed to remain for several months until now instead of being corrected.

He said the matter was obviously a bait and switch, and that the evidence was crystal clear.