Undersea tunnel project above board: Guan Eng

GEORGE TOWN: Penang has insisted that its proposed RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel infrastructure was above board despite the numerous accusations of hanky panky about the cross channel project.
Penang has instead accused the Opposition of concocting liars and propagating fake information to mislead the people about the mega infrastructure project.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng told a press conference that the state has not paid a single sen to anyone over the tunnel project, running contrary to what Gerakan and MCA had advocated days earlier.
According to Lim, the payment given to HSSI Sdn Bhd, a professional engineering consultant, was for the work as an independent "checker" to verify and certify the designs and claims made by the project contractor — Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd.
Also, the costs of preparing the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports will eventually be borne by the consortium.
And to illustrate transparency, HSS won the job through an open competitive tender awarded by the state tender committee, in which none of the state executive councillors nor the chief minister were allowed to sit in.
Lim said that the state cannot be held responsible for any private dealings that the consortium undertakes with any other company as it was a initiated under a private sector initiative.
Earlier, the Penang DAP Youth wing lodged a police report on the alleged fake news being reported in the media about the controversial undersea tunnel project.
Deputy Youth chief Chris Lee Chun Kit urged the police to investigate the recent influx of news deemed unbecoming which was meant to distort the facts of the mega project.
He said certain media also had refused to print state government's rebuttals of allegations of corruption but repeatedly sought to spread fake news.