GEORGE TOWN: Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM) has asked Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to come clean on things he had kept hidden from the people of Penang.
This follows Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof's revelation yesterday that his ministry has yet to receive the Penang Undersea Tunnel feasibility and detailed design studies reports promised by the state government 18 months ago.
PCM deputy president Datuk Huan Cheng Guan said Fadillah's statement was shocking.
He said the failure to submit the reports proved there was a major problem, which Lim appeared to be hiding from the people.
"The Penang people, as ratepayers, have every right to know any complications or problems faced by the project.
"The failure to submit the reports also proved that the DAP-led Penang government is weak, incompetent and inefficient. This is clear when the contractor failed to complete the reports since April 2013 and no action has been taken against it.
"Most unfortune, the payment made to the contractor is higher than that gazetted by the Board of Engineers.
"As such, Lim should stop putting up an act and submit the reports to the ministry for studies.
"Why is it so difficut to submit the reports unless there are things they (the state government) are trying to hide from the people." he said.
In his statement yesterday, Fadillah had said that he found the delay in submitting the reports, which were reported to cost RM305 million, "highly unusual" as the project was awarded in April 2013.
"No construction has started and the reports costing RM305 million are not fully completed yet. This is despite at least RM220 million having already been paid out by the Penang government," he was quoted as saying.
It was reported on June 15 last year that Lim had said that the RM305 million feasibility report was almost complete.
In April this year, Lim had said that the study could not proceed as the state was awaiting a master plan for a reclamation project in Butterworth.
He claimed that the reclamation work, involving 650ha near the Penang Port, has yet to commence despite being awarded by the former Barisan Nasional (BN) state government to Rayston Consortium Sdn Bhd in 1999.
In May this year, state Works, Transportation and Utilities Committee chairman Lim Hock Seng told the state assembly sitting that 87 per cent of the feasibility report had been completed.
He also mentioned that the state government had already extended the dateline from December last year to September this year.