KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — Attorney-General (AG) Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail should be sacked for letting slip those his office deemed responsible for the government’s RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project failure, DAP’s Tony Pua said today.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP blamed Abdul Gani for the acquittal of two former transport ministers, Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik and most recently Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy, suggesting that their release was due to the faulty charges raised by the public prosecutor.

“Why did the Attorney-General not charge Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy for criminal breach of trust despite the PAC recommendations?” Pua asked in his statement.

A member of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the DAP lawmaker said the panel had strongly recommended in November 2009 that Chan be charged with criminal breach of trust (CBT) for issuing three letters of guarantee on behalf of the government for the construction of the shipping hub, without the approval from the Finance Ministry.

He noted that PAC had consulted Abdul Gani, who had told them that the three support letters issued by Chan were implicitly a form of guarantee from the government, but added that the AG had later decided against pressing CBT charges on Chan, choosing instead a “mind-boggling charge of having cheated the then Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Badawi”.

He argued the cheating charge was doomed to fail after the High Court ruled last year to acquit Dr Ling, who was the transport minister before Chan, and had been similarly charged with cheating Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah’s predecessor.

“Once again, the question needs to be asked: did the AG frame the charges [to] fail against both Tun Ling Liong Sik and Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy?” Pua said.

He further questioned if the AG had deliberately chosen to press “flimsy charges” against the two MCA leaders “so as to provide the Najib administration with the appearance of taking a strong stand against corruption before elections”.

The DAP national publicity secretary demanded Datuk Seri Najib Razak replace Abbdul Gani with someone competent and who could act without fear and favour, if the sixth prime minister were serious about tackling corruption within his administration.

Chan’s acquittal yesterday came after the prosecution withdrew its case against the former transport minister over the charges of fraud involving the PKFZ.

According to Chan’s lawyer, Datuk Tan Hock Chuan, the prosecution decided to drop the charges after considering his client’s application to strike out the case. 

Last October, former MCA president Dr Ling was also acquitted of cheating charges over the purchase of land for the PKFZ.

The prosecution had then declined to appeal his acquittal.

Dr Ling had pitched the idea for the PKFZ in 1997, when he was then transport minister.

It was originally to have cost RM1.1 billion but the sum later grew to RM4.6 billion in 2007, before an audit by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 2008 showed that the total cost, including interest payments, was projected to hit RM12.5 billion.

With Chan’s acquittal yesterday, the only people who remain on trial over the scandal are former Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager OC Phang, KDSB chief executive Steven Abok, and architect Bernard Tan Seng Swee.