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KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 — Lim Kit Siang piled pressure today on Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat to make public an audit on the scandal-plagued Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) after a newspaper report claimed the cost of the project had swollen to RM8 billion.

The Edge reported today estimates show the total bill for the PKFZ could rise to RM8 billion, and not a maximum of RM4.6 billion as promised by former Transport Minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy.

Unnamed sources were quoted by the newspaper as attributing the higher costs to cost of borrowings. Interest on the borrowings was now much higher, they said.

“One of the first things he promised a year ago as Transport Minister was to ‘tell all’ about the RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Zone bailout scandal.

“Up to now, he has told nothing,” said Lim, the Ipoh Timur MP and veteran opposition lawmaker, in a statement today.

Taxpayers, he said, were entitled to know the full details of the PKFZ scandal.

Ong and other officials are also expected to face pressure from their parliamentary colleagues after the Public Accounts Committee said last week that it plans to “seek clarification” from those responsible for PKFZ.

A PAC hearing is expected in the next two weeks.

Earlier this month, Ong passed the buck over the release of the audit probe by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), saying it was now up to the Port Klang Authority (PKA) to decide.

The minister also argued there was a need for the documents to be officially declassified before they were released to the public.

Besides Chan, former MCA president Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, who was also a former transport minister, has been implicated in the scandal.

The PKFZ project has been criticised because its development cost of less than RM2.5 billion had ballooned amid concerns about its ability to meet its debt obligations as well as that of the soft loan.

There were also questions about the possible kickbacks after it was disclosed that several individuals acquired the piece of land where the PKFZ now sits at RM3 per sq ft in 1999. The PKA later acquired the land at RM25psf.

PKFZ ran into further problems when Jebel Ali Free Zone quit the management of the property.

Chan was dropped as a Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate in the March general election last year, and subsequently lost his job, largely as a result of how the debacle was handled.