KUALA LUMPUR: Despite a damning report by audit firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) that showed government tourism development company Pempena Sdn Bhd to be in dire states and hinting of corruption, its executive chairman Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun appeared all smiles yesterday.

She called for a press conference but used it only to rebut comments made against her by the opposition.

She brushed aside questions on the remedial action to be taken to stop the bleeding in Pempena.

The PWC report stated that as of June 2008, Pempena had invested RM54.4 million in 24 companies but only four generated profits.

It also showed that Pempena had invested in five non-functional companies.
PWC has proposed that the company pull out of these investments, a move that would incur a loss of RM20 million.

Also probed was Pempena's RM18.3 million investment in luxury taxi project, Executive Taxi Services (Pets), which recorded a revenue of only RM369,000 as of June this year. It has recorded losses of up to RM7.8 million.

When the press conference started, Chew read from a press release clarifying "inaccuracies" in DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang's blog entry on the audit report.

The main inaccuracy: "Firstly, I am not the executive director but the executive chairman of Pempena."

Reading from the prepared text, Chew went on to say how hard she worked as a full-time chairman and how she was not responsible for Pempena's losses and bad investment choices as she only started work in May this year.

Chew also did not want to respond to Lim's blog posting which questioned the competency and lack of transparency of Pempena's projects.

"I will not answer on things that happened before my time. Now I just want to focus on revamping the company."

When asked about the measures she planned to undertake to recover the losses, Chew said, "I don't think we need to answer this."

"We have appointed PWC to do a report. We will tell you how we are going to do it (turn round the company) but not now," said the Wanita MCA chief.

"It is a complicated issue, I cannot answer you just like that."

"We have a future direction but I will not tell you how we are going to revamp the company."

She was then queried about the complaints submitted by Pempena staff to Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman via a memorandum dated March 24.

Among the complaints were Pempena's dubious employment procedures, allegations of fraud and cronyism, as well as claims that some employees had not been paid for months.

Chew brushed aside the question and called the memorandum a "poison pen letter".

When told that the memorandum was indeed a document signed by 20 employees, with copies sent to the four-member Pempena board of directors and 11 directors of the Tourism Malaysia board, Chew still insisted on her notion.

Chew also denied Lim's accusation that Pempena now needed an additional injection of RM5 million to keep afloat.

Lim yesterday filed a police report alleging breach of trust, lies and power abuse by the ministry and Pempena companies.

Later, he said that Pempena was trying to raise at least RM5 million to "recover its financial status".