No moratorium on projects of tunnel contractor, says Penang gov't

The Penang government will not be imposing a moratorium on projects handled by Consortium Zenith Construction, even though the company and its key personnel have been investigated by MACC.

Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said Zenith’s senior executive director Zarul Ahmad Zulkifli has already announced that the MACC will not be taking any action against him or the company after the anti-corruption agency completed its investigations.

“Therefore the question of imposing a moratorium on Zenith does not arise unless MACC thinks it should continue the investigations. But in this case, they have decided that no charges would be preferred against the company and the person in charge of the project,” Chow said at a press conference in Komtar today.

“As far as we are concerned, we consider the matter closed and we are still working with the company to finalise the agreement so that the work on the (undersea) tunnel and three paired roads can proceed as determined by Zenith on Aug 31,” he added.

Chow was asked to respond to a proposal by Center for Corruption and Cronyism (C4) that the Penang government should put a hold on all projects involving Zenith until the MACC clears the company of corruption.

C4’s proposal came after businessperson G Gnanaraja was charged in court for cheating a company director of RM19 million to “settle” the probe against the firm by MACC.

Gnanaraja (photo) was later charged with 68 counts of money laundering.

When contacted this morning, Zarul had declined to comment. In July last year, he had said that he was cheated by a businessperson who made him believe that the corruption probe by MACC could be settled.

Chow said the case involving the businessperson was a case of “cheating”, where the accused had to face the charge of misleading Zarul into believing that he could help resolve the probe against the company.

“For this case, it has nothing to do with the state government, although Zarul is the senior executive of Zenith, which was awarded the tender for the tunnel and three paired roads job,” Chow explained.

“If it is not related to the government, what more of other subsequent charges against this businessperson. It is much more remote and has nothing to do with the Penang government or projects by Zenith,” he added.

“It is only the businessperson who was charged in court and not Zarul (photo), the charge is not over the tender, it was not how the state government awarded the tender, it has nothing to do with the state government, it is entirely a case whereby a person took advantage of a particular situation to obtain a huge amount of money for himself,” Chow stressed.

In its statement yesterday, C4 director Cynthia Gabriel urged MACC to speed up its probe on the company, so that “all possible malfeasance” may be exposed in the interest of transparency.

Gabriel wants the Penang government to conduct business only with companies that have “strong anti-corruption compliance mechanisms”.

The MACC launched an investigation into the RM305 million feasibility study for the undersea tunnel in January last year, to see if money was misappropriated from it to pay kickbacks to key politicians.

In the process, the MACC raided Zenith’s offices in Kuala Lumpur, arrested several key personnel of the company and questioned about 100 individuals.

Penang government leaders have insisted that the project was awarded via an open tender and denied any knowledge of kickbacks or the RM19 million to settle the case with MACC. - Mkini