Ongkili: Chan shooting his mouth off over gas pipeline
KOTA KINABALU: Parti Bersatu Sabah has lambasted Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin for allegedly making “wild accusations” about the Trans-Sabah Gas Pipeline (TSGP) project.
Chan, who is Sabah DAP secretary, earlier said he was shocked by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng’s revelation that 87.7%, or RM4.53bil, of the TSGP project’s cost had already been paid despite it being only 13% complete.
He accused former Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister (keTTHA) Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili of being “irresponsible” while sitting in the Federal Cabinet, and of making Sabah and Malaysia a “laughing stock” for defending the project.
Ongkili, who is PBS deputy president, claimed that it was “utterly irresponsible” of Chan to make accusations of a project he supposedly knew nothing about.
“Obviously he does not know about the Kimanis-Sandakan TSGP project,” said Ongkili.
“Such an act is not only a reflec- tion of political immaturity, but proves that DAP leaders are political novices in the Government,” Ongkili claimed in a statement yesterday.
Ongkili noted that PBS, as a Sabahan party in the previous Barisan Nasional Cabinet, fully supported TSGP as it was convinced that the project would bring great benefit to Sabah.
“The plan was to build a gas pipeline from Kimanis to Sandakan, and eventually to Tawau, to supply gas for industries and electricity generation,” Ongkili said.
“This would solve the 70% dependency on energy import through the State grid.”
Ongkili claimed that the project cost an estimated RM4.53bil and was funded fully by the Federal Government.
He also claimed that the clients of TSGP were Petronas as gas supplier, and KeTTHA as fuel energy user.
“But because gas matters in respect of production and distribution were under the Prime Minister’s Department, the project implementation was placed under the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and Ministry of Finance (MOF), including matters of budget and contracts.
“These issues were outside KeTTHA’s policy purview and supervision,” he claimed.
Ongkili said if MOF’s allegations of misappropriation and wrongdoing regarding TSGP proved true, PBS would not condone such actions and urged the law to take its course.