Voir not the main contractor
> Fashion house an investor in tunnel project, says CM
GEORGE TOWN: The public-listed fashion house Voir Holdings Berhad was listed as an investor in the proposed RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel project, said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
Clarifying claims that something dubious must have occurred to involve a fashion apparel and accessories company in an infrastructure project, Lim said Voir was an investor and not the main contractor.
The depiction of Voir as a contractor was false, and unnecessary, he told a press conference.
Lim said that a company can invest in the project but it does not mean that the company would be building the project.
He said the state government had signed an agreement in 2013 with Consortium Zenith-BUCG Sdn Bhd and China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd (CRCC) as the main project contractor.
“The CRCC is the main project contractor. The contract we signed to build the three highways is with CRCC, so don’t try to confuse this issue.”
Lim was responding to questions raised by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong on why a fashion company has become the majority owner of the tunnel project.
Wee said that the public was entitled to know why an infrastructure project of such magnitude could feature a company whose core business was fashion.
Lim said Wee, who is MCA deputy president, was trying to confuse the whole issue as there were no changes to the main project contractor.
He pointed out a similar business arrangement when the Minister of Finance Inc’s (MoF Inc) recently had an acquisition of a 51% stake in a 106 storey skyscraper known as The Exchange 106 in the Klang Valley.
“The MoF Inc bought the skyscraper but it doesn’t mean the MoF Inc will be constructing it, they will let other contractors build it,” he said. In PUTRAJAYA, the magistrate’s court extended the remand on two “Datuks” in the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation into the tunnel project for another five days.
The duo are a 59-year-old senior executive director of a company and a property development company chairman aged 50.
The men were detained by MACC separately on Jan 9 and remanded for six days on Jan 10 by the Putrajaya magistrate’s court and George Town magistrate’s court.