Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Guan Eng stumped over agreement to pay RM33.18 million advance to IJM - Sun

GEORGE TOWN (Sept 29, 2008)by Himanshu Bhatt

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today he was confused by the former state government’s agreement to give RM33.18 million as “advance payment in the form of a loan” to IJM Corp Bhd for the Jelutong Expressway project.

Lim told reporters he was curious why the state had decided to give the amount in a 1997 agreement when it had already given IJM land for the project which cost RM672.2 million .

“In addition to giving land, the state has to give an advance. It does not make sense,” he told a press conference at Komtar here.

Lim said his confusion was compounded by the fact that IJM also owed the state RM24.1 million for payment of the 132ha land, which is supposed to be settled only after the state had given the advance of RM33.18 million.

“I don’t understand why they can’t settle both payments by contra,” he said when asked to comment on the non-payment by IJM to the state.

Lim said he needed to get more information from state government officers.

He noted that the state was supposed to give the RM33.18 million in stages over over five years from 2005.

Meanwhile, on MCA vice-president Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai’s call for Gerakan and MCA to merge, Lim said such a merger would only be cosmetic if the policies of the Barisan Nasional (BN) did not change.

“The problem is not Gerakan or MCA, the problem is the BN.” he said.

He also noted Gerakan acting president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon’s statement that 60% of the party’s members were inclined to leave the BN.

“If 60% of the members want to the leave, why are they still stuck in the BN?” he asked.

“If they want a leader who doesn’t listen to their views, I wish them luck!," he added.

3 comments:

Khun Pana aka johanssm said...

Gerakan have nothing to lose if they leave bn. By leaving bn , gerakan will have more confidence plus getting the nods and supports from the people.
People will give a standing ovation to gerakan if they leaves bn. This is not a joke.I am not joking with you on this one here.
Koh better let its own party members to decide on this one by having a ballot , to leave or to stay. As gerakan is fast depleting loyal supports .
Time is running out as a good 40% already abandons Gerakan. And out of the balance loyals ,a good 60 percent of them wants a pullout.
Gerakan will be an empty shell by this Christmas.


Leaving bn is not the end of the world, its only the beginning.

Huang Hai-chen said...

Again BN's element of corruption

It is good that the present government expose all the wrong doings of the previous BN government to show the people how corrupt it is with the BN machinery

artic turban said...

M.B. KHALID, (and all the pakatan M.B.s and C.M. TO their own civil servants)
HAS TO MAKE A STATEMENT and a directiveto all civil servants and also , TO THE PKNS STAFF, PKNS WORKS TO THE SELANGOR STATE GOVT AGENDA, not some mumbo jumbo 'agenda ketuanan melayu umno. ' the new slogan for the pakatan states to the state civil servants should read, 'WORK WITH US or GO WORK SOMEWHERE ELSE' this will be an indirect slap to that other guy who came out with 'WORK WITH ME' SLOGAN. This should be the ultimation to the 'BIADAP' culture of our biadap civil servants.