I was shocked that PDC General Manager, Dato’ Rosli Jaafar has learned fast from the current administration in passing the buck over the 5 million car park project at the foot of Penang Hill.

PDC must be held responsible for the fiasco as its subsidiary; PDC Consultancy Sdn Bhd was assigned to take up the project by PDC management in 2007.

The car park project was approved by the Ministry of Tourism under the 9th Malaysia Plan allocation. The then State EXCO decided to direct PDC to implement the project as implementing agency. This was because JKR and Penang Island Municipal Council had decided that they could not implement the project as they had many other projects to be implemented under the 9th Malaysia Plan.

That was why the project did not make any progress until Sept 2007 when PDC agreed to be the implementing agency although the project was approved in 2006.

While the previous administration approved the project, the architecture design and engineering design were not even ready for approval then. Approving a project and building plans are two different matters. The previous administration approved the project for a four storey building. The implementing agency must then draw up the technical building plans for approval by the local authority before works begin.

When I chaired the last committee meeting on 9th Malaysia Plan projects under the Ministry of Tourism in January 2008, PDC has yet to complete the technical design of the building as the issue of consultancy fee has yet to be resolved. By the time I left office in March 2008, the details building plan and the artist’s impression of the project had yet to be presented to me or the previous administration.

I have checked with my former staff from Penang Tourism Action Council (now dissolved) on this project as they were tasked by the Ministry of Tourism to monitor the progress of the project but not on technicalities. They confirmed that the project was delayed by land and electrical sub station issues which was discovered in the middle of 2008. All those issues were resolved towards the end of 2008 with a new fresh planning. In late 2008, the North East District Land Office signed the plans as land owner to facilitate PDC to submit the plans for planning permission application to Penang Island Municipal Council for approval to kick start the project.

The whole building plans were approved by Penang Municipal Council in May 2009. The Penang Island Municipal Council has the technical expertise to advise the Pakatan Rakyat Municipal Councillors before approving the building plan of the car park. If there were technical flaws in the building plans, why then the Pakatan Rakyat Councillors approved it? Who then monitor the construction of the building after the building plans were approved? It cannot be the previous administration! In short, the previous administration cannot be held responsible on the technical flaws of the approved building plans.

According to Dato’ Rosli, the current administration was not informed of the progress of the project. I find such statement absurd and ridiculous, and show how irresponsible PDC in passing the buck. All projects under implementation irrespective of state or federal must be reported progressively to the State Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and in this case to the Penang Tourism Action Council as well. State EPU would then report to the State Government and the Ministry of Tourism on a monthly basis. That was how projects were monitored by the previous administration. I do not understand how it works now as PDC claimed that the current administration has no knowledge of the implementation. It cannot be on ‘auto pilot’ monitoring! If PDC has failed to report progressively to the current administration, they should be held responsible and stop passing the buck.