Labuan Port Authority in bad state due to wasteful spending: Chan
Published on: Thursday, November 14, 2019
By: FMT
KUALA LUMPUR: Labuan Port Authority (LPA) Chairman, Chan Foong Hin, alleged in parliament that LPA was in a bad financial state when he took over the helm from Wee Jeck Seng, due to “unnecessary and wasteful spending”.
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“When I took over as LPA chairman from Wee, LPA was in a bad financial state. One of the first things I noticed was unnecessary and wasteful spending of LPA funds, including the rental of three units of office at Level 22 in Menara UOA Bangsar for three years for a total rental of RM526,836.96.
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“I was unable to use this office after my appointment because it was empty with no furniture or staff! We were unable to terminate the contract as LPA is bound by the tenancy agreement until 14 April 2020,” he said in parliament.
Chan, who is also Kota Kinabalu MP, said Wee claimed there is nothing wrong for the LPA under his chairmanship to have rented the huge Grade A office in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, for RM14,634.36 a month for three years from 2017.
“Wee’s decision was extravagant when LPA had not started to generate any income yet!
“RM343,180.50 was spent on renovation of the 3,000 square feet Bangsar office,” he said.
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He said there were many things that Wee should have done as LPA chairman, including gazetting the LPA by-laws, pushing for the issuance of land title for the Liberty Wharf, repairing and upgrading of the jetty at Liberty Wharf, appointing an official port operator, picking a logo, setting up an official website, etc.
“Is the renovation of the office and installing an auto/smart toilet bowl more important than the gazetting of by-laws and appointment of a port operator? Wee clearly had his priorities misplaced!”
Chan said the new LPA board members appointed by the Pakatan Harapan Federal Government are committed to prudent spending.
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