A day after Pempena Sdn Bhd new executive chairperson Chew Mei Fun called a press conference to answer questions on the millions of losses involving the state-owned company, the opposition has trained its guns on her predecessor.

mca new cabinet member 180308 chor chee heung Chew, at a press conference yesterday, said she could not account for the period under former Pempena boss Chor Chee Heung’s ( right) watch, who is a party colleague in MCA and now deputy home minister.

"I will not answer on things that happened before my time," said Chew, who was appointed to helm the Tourism Ministry subsidiary soon after she lost her Petaling Jaya Utara parliamentary seat in the March 8 general elections.

The Pempena scandal could cost company as much as RM50 million in losses due to a litany of bad investments, criminal breach of trust and financial improprieties.

women leader forum scah 240408 chew mei fun “If Chew ( left ) does not want to assume responsibility for what happened before her time, why didn't she get the former Pampena chairman, Chor, to appear together with her at the media conference yesterday so that questions ... could be answered?” demanded veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang.

“If Chor is not prepared to answer and account for the RM50 million Pampena scandal, is he prepared to resign as deputy home minister as Chew has pushed the whole buck ... to him?”

Lim also took Chew to task for the appointments of those applying to be research assistants for ministers as Pempena’s directors and general managers.

Chew had argued that it was the right of the company to employ those it sees fit. However, Lim argued that these are political appointments.

parliament 181108 lim kit siang pc on pempena 02 “Malaysians are entitled to know the full number, list and costs of the ‘political appointees’ padded onto the Pampena payroll after the March 8 general election, but who are not doing any Pempena work as they answer directly to the minister of tourism.

“What is the justification for increasing the monthly overhead costs of Pempena when it is already such a losing concern?”

A direct lost of RM20 mil

Pempena, a national tourism development company set up in 1976 by Tourism Malaysia, is an agency of the Tourism Ministry.

Allegations against Pempena first surfaced in a July 2 Malaysiakini report regarding a memorandum by Pempena staff to Tourism Minister Azalina Othman, alleging graft and breach of trust by two key figures in the company.

Among others, the allegations stated that the duo had pocketed commissions when refinancing luxury vehicles for a high-end tourist taxi service, approved several lucrative contracts to RM2 companies, overstating the cost of creating an e-tourism portal by about RM5 million, and by passing the Pempena board of directors in 'investing' in a restaurant project in Melbourne.

azalina tongkat ali promotion 080408 Following this, Azalina said in the Dewan Rakyat on July 7 that an internal probe was underway. On Nov 3, she revealed in the Dewan Rakyat that PWC audit had confirmed "questionable" deals by Pempena.

A summary report of the PWC probe, which was only made public through Lim yesterday, said that as of June 2008, Pempena had invested a total of RM54.5 million in 24 companies, but only four generated profits.

The report also said that Pempena invested in five non-functional companies and recommended divesting the companies which would result in a loss of approximately RM20 million.

PWC also notes that the RM18.3 million Executive Taxi Services (Pets) luxury taxi project has so far recorded a loss of up to RM7.8 million.

The report however was only limited to a few matters while other allegations highlighted by Malaysiakini, such as the RM10 million e-tourism portal, was not mentioned.