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The Music-
Man rules
44 killed
in attack
on wedding
party
DIYARBAKIR (Turkey): Masked gun-
men armed with assault rifles and
grenades attacked a wedding party
in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey,
killing 44 people, including many
women and children.
The fate of the bride and the
groom was unknown.
The attack on Monday evening
was one of the worst involving civil-
ians in Turkey.
Interior Minister Besir Atalay said
eight people had been detained.
Initial evidence showed the attack
was a result of a blood feud between
families and not the work of separa-
tist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
guerillas.
“The state prosecutor has been
working all night, listening to the ac-
counts of eyewitnesses. Eight people
have been caught and detained,
and their weapons confiscated. This
can be understood as a blood feud
between two families,” Atalay told a
news conference.
He said 44 had been killed in the
attack, including 16 women and six
children. Earlier, authorities had said
45 had died.
Television broadcasters said there
had been a blood feud between the
two families in the small village in
recent years.
Atalay said those detained and
those who had been killed shared
the same last name, pointing to
inter-clan violence.
The deputy governor of the
province of Mardin, Ahmet Ferhat
Ozen, told Reuters by telephone the
assailants stormed a house in Bilge
village near Sultankoy, some 20km
from Mardin, hurling grenades and
opening fire on the wedding guests.
“There were a few people, they
broke into the house and started
spraying the place with bullets,
hitting both men and women. Their
faces were covered with masks,”
said a 20-year-old female eyewit-
ness.
She said there were some 200
people at the wedding party.
The assailants escaped from
the isolated region of Turkey on the
border with Syria before soldiers
surrounded the village and cut off
road access. Pursuit of the attackers
was being hindered by a sandstorm,
authorities said.
Local media said the families of
both the bride and the groom includ-
ed members of the Village Guard, a
heavily armed state-backed militia
set up to combat Kurdish separatist
guerillas and provide intelligence in
southeast Turkey.
State-run news agency Anatolian
reported the daughter of the village
chief, called a muhtar, was being
married when the attack, which
lasted 15 minutes, occurred.
“Evidence so far shows it was not
the work of a terrorist group,” Atalay
told reporters. – Reuters
Member of Audit Bureau of Circulations (Malaysia)
» PTPTN may face RM46b deficit by 2020 pg4
pg15
Damning disclosure PKFZ AUDIT REPORT REVEALS CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
by R. Nadeswaran and
Terence Fernandez
newdesk@thesundaily.com
P
ETALING JAYA: The inde-
pendent audit report on the Port
Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) which
is expected to be released this
week is a damning disclosure of
mismanagement, clandestine deals,
conflicts of interest and a total
disregard for transparency and ac-
countability for a project which was
supposed to cost RM1.845 billion but
ended up at RM4.6 billion.
Sources told theSun that among
the findings of Pricewaterhouse-
Coopers (PWC) are that:
» No proper studies were under-
taken before embarking on the
project;
» Major decisions on the
project were made without
prior approval of the Port Klang
Authority (PKA) board;
» The PKA chairman and
general manager entered into
agreements without seeking
the advice of the relevant gov-
ernment authorities;
» There was a failure to exer-
cise adequate governance and
implement checks and balances
in the implementation of the
project.
PWC was commissioned by
PKA to probe the troubled project
a year ago following an expose by
theSun in 2007.
The audit report also detailed a
series of conflict of interest situ-
ations:
» Sementa assemblyman Datuk
Abdul Rahman
Palil was both
the Pulau Lumut
Development Co-
operative (KPPL)
chairman and a
PKA director in
2002 when the land
for PKFZ was sold
by KPPL to PKA;
» Rashid Asari &
Co, the legal firm
retained by PKA,
was also the same firm
overseeing the inking of t h e
sales and purchase agreement
between KPPL and turnkey
contractor Kuala Dimensi Sdn
Bhd (KDSB). A point to note is that
its senior partner, Datuk Abdul
Rashid Asari, was the deputy chief
of Umno’s Kapar division, where
Tan Sri Onn Ismail is an exco mem-
ber. Onn was the KPPL chairman
and his son-in-law Faizal Abdullah,
the then Kapar Umno division youth
chief, is also the deputy CEO of Wi-
jaya Baru Global Bhd (WBGB), the
firm appointed by KDSB as the main
subcontractor;
» Perunding BE Sdn Bhd, appointed
by PKA as the independent quantity
30 SEN for delivery to your doorstep
TELLING IT AS IT IS
» From Fergie reject to Barca colossus pg30
surveyor for PKFZ, was also a quan-
tity surveyor for KDSB;
» PKA’s board of directors were not
advised that the chairman of PKA at
one time was also the deputy chair-
man of WBGB;
» KDSB directors Omar Latip and
Idris Mat Jani are also directors and
shareholders of WBGB.
One contributory aspect to the
PKFZ mess, the sources added, was
that several Finance Ministry regu-
lations on transparent accounting
practices were not complied with
and that the advice of the attorney-
general (A-G) was not sought.
“The agreement between PKA
and KDSB was not even vetted by
the A-G,” said one source.
Flashback: theSun expose on
PKFZ in 2007
Award winning newspaper
for public service reporting
and opinion writing.
No. 4752 PP 2644/12/2009 (023092)
Wednesday
May 6, 2009
www.sun2surf.com
The A-G had suggested the gov-
ernment acquire the 404ha for the
development of the free zone instead
of purchasing it from KDSB at an
inflated rate of RM25 per sq foot,
although KDSB had purchased the
land from KPPL for only RM3 per
sq foot.
The source goes on to reveal
KDSB’s questionable conduct by
overcharging PKA in interests of
up to RM300 million, while hidden
costs amounting to RM100 million
were not revealed to PKA, hence the
purchase price of over RM1 billion.
“There was an absence of com-
petitive open tenders with KDSB be-
ing awarded the contract to develop
the free zone even before the master
Sports
plan for PKFZ was completed,” said
the source, adding that the audit
report showed that contracts were
entered into merely on estimation
of the projected costs.
The report, it is said, also
specifies that while the intention
of setting up the free zone was
to transform Port Klang into a
regional trans-shipment hub, cost
escalations, poor governance by
PKA coupled with weak project
management had undermined the
viability of PKFZ as well as PKA’s
financial obligations where its re-
serves of RM500 million have been
all but wiped out.
“If all these bases were covered,
then PKFZ would have been a gold-
mine,” said another source.
The audit report also paints a
troubling picture of officials in the
Transport Ministry, noting that so-
called letters of support signed by
a former minister for the issuance
of the bonds could be construed as
a guarantee and that PKA would
have to meet its financial obliga-
tions under such an arrangement.
Instead of complying with the
Treasury’s recommendations of
issuing government bonds and
developing the project in phases,
thereby benefitting from lower cou-
pon rates, PKA decided to develop
the free zone in one go, having to
pay double the rate, estimated at
about 8%. Hence, there are con-
cerns the project cost could balloon
further.
It is learnt that the report also
noted that PKFZ only enjoys an oc-
cupancy rate of 16% to 19%.
“However, one is confi-
dent that with the new team
at the helm the project is
salvageable,” said another
source, attributing the
disclosure of the PKFZ fi-
asco to efforts by Transport
Minster Datuk Seri Ong
Tee Keat and the “clean-
up crew” of PKA chairman
Datuk Lee Hwa Beng and
PKFZ general manager Lim
Thean Shiang, who took over
from Datin Paduka O.C. Phang
last year.
It is learnt that Lim briefed
government backbenchers on
the audit report yesterday.
An MP, when contacted, said
the closed-door briefing was meant
to keep them abreast of the issues
before the audit becomes public.
Ironically, current Backbench-
ers’ Club chairman, Bintulu MP
Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing holds a
controlling stake in KDSB. Former
Umno treasurer Datuk Abdul Azim
Zabidi is also a director of KDSB.
» CHRONOLOGY OF THE
PKFZ FIASCO Page 3