Police report lodged on Pempena scandal
November 19, 2008 DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang today filed a police report against the Tourism Ministry and state-owned company Pempena Sdn Bhd over a litany of allegations ranging from breach of trust, fraud to abuse of power.
He made the report at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters and appended the PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PWC) summary report on Pempena and its subsidiaries.
Lim also appended an article by The Sun editor R Nadeswaran titled ‘Let them rot in jail’ on the Pempena scandal and the former’s five-page press statement on the matter.
Speaking to reporters later, Lim said: “I have just heard that Pempena is looking for a fresh injection of RM5 million to keep it afloat. The tourism minister (Azalina Othman Said) must explain the needs for the extra funds.”
“Is it throwing away good money for bad money?” asked Lim, who was accompanied by Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Loon, Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching and Kuching MP Chong Jen Jien.
Pempena is a national tourism development company set up in 1976 by Tourism Malaysia, an agency of the Tourism Ministry.
Allegations against Pempena first surfaced in a July 2 Malaysiakini report regarding a memorandum by Pempena staff to Azalina, alleging graft and breach of trust by two key figures in the company.
Limited scope
Among others, the allegations stated that the duo had pocketed commissions when refinancing luxury vehicles for a high-end tourist taxi service, approved several lucrative contracts to RM2 companies, overstating the cost of creating an e-tourism portal by about RM5 million; and by passing the Pempena board of directors in ‘investing’ in a restaurant project in Melbourne.
Following this, Azalina revealed in the Dewan Rakyat on July 7 that an internal probe was underway. On November 3, she revealed in the Dewan Rakyat that PWC audit had confirmed “questionable” deals by Pempena.
A summary report of the PWC probe, which was only made public through Lim yesterday, said that as of June 2008, Pempena had invested a total of RM54.5 million in 24 companies, but only four generated profits.
The report also said that Pempena invested in five non-functional companies and recommended divesting the companies which would result in a loss of approximately RM20 million.
PWC also notes that the RM18.3 million Executive Taxi Services (Pets) luxury taxi project has so far recorded a loss of up to RM7.8 million.
The report however was only limited to a few matters while other allegations stated in the memorandum by Pempena staff such as the RM10 million e-tourism portal was not mentioned.
