12 Nov 2019

Jeremy Wong’s allegations a political ploy to discredit Wee Jeck Seng

We refer to DAP Labuan's Jeremy Wong Kwan Kit's absolutely lame and very politically-motivated statement to attack BN's Tanjung Piai candidate by questioning why Labuan Port Authority needs an office in Kuala Lumpur which he deems as a waste of RM526k worth of Public funds.

After Labuan Port Authority (LPA) was separated by the BN Government in 2016, it was determined that LPA needed a small office in Kuala Lumpur to facilitate trade, promotional and regulatory matters.

The main question he is asking if there is justification for LPA to pay RM14k a month to rent an office in Bangsar South, Kuala Lumpur.

It is not a question about corruption or wrong-doing.

I am not sure why Jeremy thinks that a 3,000 square feet office in Kuala Lumpur is considered very big and very wasteful but I would like to highlight that many other port operators and shipping companies around the country have offices in Kuala Lumpur too.

Westport in Port Klang has an office in Mont Kiara. Similarly, the Port of Tanjung Pelepas in Johor has an office in Menara TH Perdana in Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.

It cannot be disputed that Kuala Lumpur remains the commerce, regulatory and financial center of Malaysia.

For the same reason, the Labuan Financial Services Authority also has an office in KL Sentral which is near Bangsar South.

This was also the reason given by Ong Kian Ming why DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng decided to open a Kuala Lumpur office for the Penang Institute despite Penang being 360km away.

This is thus a question of the Return of Investment, speed of execution and business development potential versus blind, short-sighted thinking of "penny-wise, pound foolish" thinking of PH politicians and the reason why our country's economy is increasingly becoming worse under PH.

A single new shipping line or customer attracted by LPA in Kuala Lumpur would have led to business revenues that will give positive return of investment many times over the rental cost of its KL office.

Jeremy also claims that LPA's KL office lease of 3 years commenced on April 2017.

He himself claimed that after the lease commenced, renovation work of many months took place and that the Auditor General says that by the end of the year, the office has yet to be occupied.

However, Wee Jeck Seng was the former LPA chairman while operational matters are under the General Manager of LPA who is answerable to the Secretary General of MOT. Any decision must be approved by the Board of LPA and not unilaterally decided by the Board Chairman.

Since PH took over in April 2018 and if the office is still empty today and will continue to remain empty until April 2020 instead of being used for business development and promotional use then it is the PH government that will be responsible for 2/3 of Jeremy's alleged RM526k waste.

As for the smart toilet bowl. we are unsure what the cost is as this is an operational matter not under the former Chairman.

Perhaps Jeremy can enlighten us by providing proof of cost?

However, we are not surprised with the extreme attention paid by PH politicians to "toilet matters".

It is for this reason that the PH Minister spent untold amounts of public funds to develop and launch the MyWC or "My Toilet" app to help the public fund a toilet in a grand ceremony in September.

As Jeremy is very concerned that RM14k in monthly rental cost paid for by public funds, we would also like Jeremy to exercise similar diligence in two areas:

1. Ensure your dozens of RM80k per month Ministers attend parliament and not to ponteng and waste public funds.

2.  Question Guan Eng and Chow Kon Yeow why they are funding the RM65,000 per month rental for the 13,500 square feet space of the Asia Comic Museum since April 2016 even though DAP have now confirmed that the Comic Museum is 100% privately owned and not owned by the Penang government.

Since April 2016, an estimated RM2.7 million of public money has been spent by the Penang Government on a company headed by DAP strongman Superman Hew Kuan Yau.

Is this a question of the Rakyat paying for the main monthly operating cost of a private company while DAP linked individuals rakes in 100% of the museum admission ticket revenues and sales of merchandise?

Will Jeremy be making a statement on this and help us make a MACC report on this obvious corruption of public funds?

Chan Quin Er

MCA Spokesperson

-MCA Online-