NEVER in the history of this country has there been so much vigour in the demand from the public to get to the bottom of a scandal-ridden project. The country has never seen the enthusiasm and openness of a minister who is bent on seeing justice to a problem which he inherited. Never has a minister committed himself to seeing the cornerstones of good governance – transparency and accountability – being practised. Never have so many people been involved in so many committees presenting their views on one single government project which had gone woefully awry.

Today, the task force of legal, accounting and project development experts, who were appointed to provide Port Klang Authority (PKA) with recommendations on how to recoup some of the RM7.5 billion already sunk into the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ), will present their views. Heading the team is Vinayak Pradhan, from prominent law firm Skrine, who is a former commissioner with the United Nations Compensation Commission and member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and assisted by two directors of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

This will be the fourth report for the PKA board. Previously, it had assigned PwC which produced a comprehensive report with appendices, which highlighted the damning evidence of mismanagement.

Later, the Public Accounts Committee held its hearings and gave its damning views – PKFZ project was managed by a "very incompetent group" of people. Almost immediately the Transport Ministry-appointed ad hoc committee on administration and corporate governance produced an indictment – the PKA board, the managing body of PKFZ, did not discharge its fiduciary duties diligently.

The Pradhan Committee report will provide the PKA board with the legal implications and remedies on the actions which resulted in what started as a RM2 billion project ballooning to RM12 billion. But reports must be acted upon. If they are allowed to gather dust like the report on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Bright Sparklers disaster in Sungai Buloh, they will be viewed as yet another exercise to appease and whet the appetites of those who demand for the proverbial pound of flesh.

The PKA board must adopt and implement the recommendations in these reports. Just receiving them, making them public and warming their chairs is not acceptable. If they don’t institute the proposed actions, it as good as not having them.

In this column on June 10, I asked these questions of the former directors: "What were the board members of the Port Klang Authority doing? Weren’t they entrusted with the task of being policymakers and the staff being the implementers? Did they fail in their duties? Why was there an oversight? Why were they kept in the dark? Why didn’t they ask for regular briefings on the project? ... Didn’t it occur to them that something was amiss? Weren’t they aware that they have to agree and endorse any agreement that was entered into?"

Today, after they get the fourth report in their hands, I would modify the same questions to the present board members: "What are you going to do with these reports? Are you going to implement the recommendations? Are you going to lodge police reports where criminal offences have been committed? Are you going to seek legal remedies to recover the ill-gotten gains? Are you going to seek an order to impound the passports of the suspects before they fly the coop? Are you going to get Mareva injunctions to prevent them from disposing their assets? Are you going to get Anton Piller orders to trace the whereabouts of the profits from ill-gotten gains? Would you take action against PKA officers who did not follow procedures?"

To put the matter in the right perspective, let me reiterate that I am not accusing any individual or corporation of wrongdoings. That’s not my job. What I am saying is that once the reports have identified the key people, the board is left with little choice but to not only seek civil remedies, but also bring to book the wrongdoers. If the directors of the board fail to do so, they will be no different from their predecessors who sat back and feigned ignorance on what was taking place in front of their eyes.

If the present board does not act, then it too will be failing in its fiduciary duty as required by the Companies Act and other laws. Inaction can only lead to one action – public interest litigation against each and every one of them.

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ON July 21, I wrote about how one Benjamin Netanyahu entered the country declaring that he did not suffer from any symptoms of the H1N1 flu. The response from the Health Ministry was fast and furious and accused "Citizen Nades of taking ownership of the A (H1N1) issue by highlighting it in his widely-read column". In a subsequent column, my riposte was published. On Saturday as I boarded the aircraft at Coolongatta airport in the Gold Coast, I was contemplating whether I should be Fidel Castro, Che Guevara or Chairman Mao. Knowing how the law is sometimes used selectively, I decided to be myself without wanting to invite trouble. But when we arrived at the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal, it was organised chaos. Two hard-pressed health officers were busy collecting the forms without even looking at them. As long as there were ink markings, it was acceptable but there were some whose forms were not collected.

A former national cricketer and a high-ranking officer of our defence forces can vouch that the form he had filled is still folded and acts as a bookmark for the book he was reading on the flight. I rest my case and saying anything more will be an overkill.

R. Nadeswaran hopes PKA chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng and his fellow directors will no longer give excuses for not initiating action to recover monies belonging to the people. The writer is editor (special and investigative reporting) at theSun. He can be reached at: citizen-nades@thesundaily.com