Lim: Why is Wee going on about SPV after MACC acceptance?

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Although Lim Guan Eng did not show up to face Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong in Butterworth over the Penang undersea tunnel project, the Chief Minister was obviously distressed by the MCA deputy president’s talk.

Lim expressed his anger to the press yesterday, stressing that the special purpose vehicle (SPV) of the project met the required minimum capital requirement of RM381mil.

He said even the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission accepted that the SPV met the minimum paid-up capital requirement when it launched a probe into the project.

“MACC did not question whether the required paid-up capital was met. Why is Dr Wee talking about this?” Lim said after launching an event by Seberang Prai Municipal Council here yesterday.

Dr Wee, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, spent over an hour presenting to a large crowd of locals his findings on the tunnel project Friday night.

On the required capital of the SPV, Dr Wee told reporters after his presentation: “I have to explain this. When Guan Eng used his own theory to calculate the paid-up capital, it was not the pure paid-up capital of that particular company.

“It was to show the strength of that company’s backing of the paidup capital of the parent companies.

“It was not the paid-up capital of that particular component and how much money they (parent companies) injected into the company.”

However, Dr Wee said even going along with it, he calculated the total paid-up capital of the parent companies involved as of January was RM70.5mil, still below the required minimum of RM381mil.

Barisan Nasional strategic communications deputy director Datuk Eric See-To explained at the same event that the SPV did not meet the minimum paid-up capital anymore because Beijing Urban Construction Group was out of it and China Railway Construction Group was only one of the project’s contractors left.