Saturday September 5, 2009

Freeze on bank account

By LOURDES CHARLES

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have or dered a bank to freeze about RM140mil in the account of Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd, the turnkey developer of the controversial Port Klang Free Zone pro ject.

It is learnt that Commercial Crimes Inves ti gations Department (CCID) officers have asked the bank to freeze the account as the money is believed to have been derived from the Port Klang Free Zone project.

Sources said the CCID officers were also be lieved to have traced several hundreds of millions more in another account and were making arrangements to freeze that account too.

It is learnt that the CCID officers invoked Section 44 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act to freeze the account pending investigations.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan also briefed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on the PKFZ investigations yesterday.

Police investigations were initiated following a report lodged by Port Klang Authority (PKA) chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng.

“We are going through all documents pertaining to the project to ascertain if there are any shoddy dealings or misappropriation of funds or any other criminal of fence.

“A special task force has been set up specifically to investigate the matter, and we need time to go through every document,” he said.

Musa said his officers would be calling up the parties involved.

He urged those to be called up to cooperate to ensure a speedy in vestigation as it was of public interest.

Meanwhile, Deputy CEO of Kua la Dimensi Sdn Bhd Datuk Faizal Haji Abdullah said in a statement: “KDSB (Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd ) confirms that several of its accounts have been frozen. The accounts were frozen late yesterday afternoon.

“We regard this as part of the investigation process and we are giving our fullest cooperation to the police. In the meantime, KDSB is taking advice on the legality of the freezing orders.”

A task force, set up by the Transport Ministry had on June 10, found possible fraud, including overcharging and unsubstantiated claims running into hundreds of millions of ringgit by Kuala Dimensi.

The eventual amount in dispute could run up to as much as RM1bil.

Kuala Dimensi chief executive officer is Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, is treasurer-general of the Sarawak Progres sive Demo cratic Party. Kuala Dimensi’s deputy chief executive officer is Datuk Faisal Abdul lah.

The task force comprised Skrine partner Lim Chee Wee and PricewaterhouseCoopers Adviso ry Services’ managing director Chin Kwai Fatt, and senior executive director Lim San Peen.

PKA chairman Lee Hwa Beng lodged two reports – one with the police and the other with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Com mission (MACC) – upon receiving the 370-page report with 2,500 appendices from the task force.

Lee in his report said the task force had found that Kuala Dimensi had:

> POSSIBLY made fraudulent claims on electrical infrastructure worth RM55.8mil, which had yet to be carried out on the site, and 33kv supply works and civil infrastructure works worth RM83mil, as TNB had rejected the proposal for Kuala Dimensi to undertake the work;

> NOT provided any document to support its claim of at least RM231mil as preliminaries under the development agreements, besides making claims for items it was not contractually entitled to, such as procurement of a performance bond and payment for insurance premiums totalling RM5mil;

> NOT justified its claim for variation works of RM62mil under Additional Development Works and New Additional Development Works agreements;

> APPEARED to have made an “over claim” for hotel works for which Kuala Dimensi had claimed RM69.6mil compared to the quantity surveyor’s valuation of RM44.7mil.

> NOT produced any invoice or payment voucher for the RM61mil which the company claimed was professional fees and expenses incurred; and

> CLAIMED RM254.9mil as extra work done even though the purported revised works fell within the scope of the original works envisaged in the main development agreement.