MCA grills Ramasamy for defending controversial project

PETALING JAYA: MCA has thrown a barrage of questions at Penang Deputy Chief Minister Dr P. Ramasamy following his attempt to defend the controversial Penang undersea tunnel project.

Among the questions posed was why the contract for the undersea tunnel project was not penalised or cancelled when the special purpose vehicle (SPV) never met the mini- mum RM381mil paid-up capital backing for the project.

MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong also questioned why no company was penalised for continually missing timelines agreed upon under the deal.

Dr Ramasamy, in his opinion piece published on Malaysiakini yesterday, alleged that there was a campaign against the Penang gov- ernment using half-truths, outright lies and distortion of facts to mislead and confuse the people.

He also said he “did not think” the state secretary had stated that China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd (CRCC) held equity in the SPV.

“Dr Ramasamy’s opinion piece to defend the Penang undersea tunnel scandal is a joke,” said Dr Wee.

“The state secretary did say that in his statement dated March 4, 2013, to defend allegations that the SPV did not meet the financial requirement to have a combined paid-up capital of at least RM381mil.

“Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng also repeated the RM4.5bil paid-up capital backing in his interview with KiniBiz published on April 11, 2013,” said Dr Wee.

He also stressed that CRCC was a contractor for the SPV, but it did not have a construction contract with the state government.

Dr Wee said Dr Ramasamy could prove him wrong by publishing the contract between the state government and CRCC, if such a contract did exist.

Last week, CRCC said it was never a shareholder or a developer of the SPV and was just a contractor.