'Deduct CM's salary over car park flaws'

PENANG Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was yesterday taken to task for trying to wash his hands of the controversial car park project at the foot of Penang Hill.

Lim was urged to take responsibility for the failed RM5 million car park, which cannot be used due to design flaws although it had been completed.

Barisan Nasional coordinator for Pulau Tikus, Rowena Yam, said Lim should be accountable and answerable to the rakyat as the project had been undertaken under his purview.

Yam said besides holding the post of chief minister, Lim was also the assemblyman for Air Putih, where the project was located, as well as the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) chairman -- the agency tasked with implementing the project.

She said Lim should have been overseeing and monitoring the project's progress with the powers vested on him.

"As someone who receives salary from the positions he holds, it is not proper for Lim to plead ignorance. He should provide answers on how the car park project has turned out to be a disaster.

"We are proposing that RM1 be deducted from the salary he receives as the chief minister, the assemblyman as well as the PDC chairman for his failure to find a proper solution to the problem," she said at a press conference at the state legislative assembly building here yesterday.

BN also proposed that another RM1 be deducted for the lies published in the state's official mouthpiece -- Buletin Mutiara -- and another RM1 for Lim's failure to respond to the allegations.

Buletin Mutiara had quoted Lim, in its October issue, as saying that the car park project had nothing to do with him and that he was not the chief minister when the project was introduced back in 2007. Lim also alleged that all the allegations levelled against him were baseless.

However, Yam said it was public knowledge that the car park project plan was approved when Lim became chief minister in 2008.

"It is unbecoming of Lim to shirk from his responsibility ... as a conscientious politician, he should have his salaries deducted."

Yam also said that the car park project was necessary for the people and should not be demolished as proposed by Kebun Bunga assemblyman Jason Ong Khan Lee.

The car park was part of the Tourism Ministry's RM73 million Penang Hill funicular train upgrading project.

'Deduct CM's salary over car park flaws'

PENANG Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was yesterday taken to task for trying to wash his hands of the controversial car park project at the foot of Penang Hill.

Leave Your Comment

Most Read

Most Commented