By Shannon Teoh
PORT KLANG, April 20 — Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat began payments to Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) bondholders despite a dispute over whether the turnkey developer for the controversial Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) completed up to RM1.6 billion in work, the Port Klang Authority (PKA) said today.
The former transport minister has said the government has paid RM3.039 billion to bondholders despite outstanding legal suits in the scandal that ballooned from an initial RM1.1 billion to a possible RM12.5 billion.
“During his term, two payments of RM660 million each were made in June 2009 and June 2010. So under Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha, this is just a continuation,” said PKA chairman Datuk Teh Kim Poh, referring to Ong’s successor as transport minister.
However, PKA had filed the suits in September 2009 and Ong, who was ousted as MCA president in March 2010, had said in a blog posting on June 1, 2010, that “I am blogging from Tokyo where I was informed that I have not been included in the new Cabinet line-up.”
Ong had said at the launch of a book on PKFZ by former PKA chief Datuk Lee Hwa Beng on Tuesday the government should not pay the bondholders, with another RM733.37 million due at the end of June, until the legal disputes have been settled.
PKA insisted on Wednesday it paid holders of bonds issued by KDSB to avoid breach of contract in light of ongoing legal cases in the PKFZ scandal.