Ex-Selangor MB refutes allegations

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/3/nation/3622222&sec=nation

PETALING JAYA: Former Selangor mentri besar Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo has denied allegations that Permoda-lan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB) was told to fund his children’s and maid’s overseas trips when he was in office.

“PNSB has only paid for my wife and I as allocated by the company and as a normal government practice,” he wrote in his blog yesterday, adding that his children were not entitled to the same privilege.

Dr Khir said he had reimbursed the company all the expenses incurred by his children and his Indonesian maid, and that he had paid their fares directly to the tour companies.

PNSB chief executive officer Datin Khairiyah Abu Hassan had on Wednes-day revealed at a Special Select Com-mittee on Competence, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) inquiry that the state body had spent almost RM1mil to pay for Dr Khir and his entourage to France and Morocco in 2004.

The entourage included his wife Datin Seri Zaharah Kechik, their three children and an Indonesian maid.

Other tour expenses revealed in the inquiry were to the United States, namely to Orlando Disneyland, Los Angeles, Miami and Hawaii.

“I was not interested in responding to the half-truths in the Selcat inquiry. But seeing that there have been many questions raised in this blog, I will clarify on several issues that were clearly not well-addressed,” he said, adding that the inquiry was aimed at discrediting him without any interest in determining the truth.

He said the inquiry did not reflect the true facts, citing an April 2003 trip to Indonesia that had cost RM200,000.

“One would know by reading the PNSB report that the Indonesia trip had a delegation of nearly 63 people,” he added.