PUTRAJAYA: The Ministry of Transport will no longer issue letters to support tenders, individuals or companies planning to do business with the government.

The announcement was made by Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat during a press conference this afternoon.

Ong said that although this iniative is only undertaken by his ministry, he confirmed that it was a cabinet decision.

“This was decided during last week’s cabinet meeting,” Ong told reporters at his office today.

Ong, however, did not elaborate on whether other ministries had been asked to undertake similar initiatives.

He played down the move as being connected to the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) controversy, even though the two other actions seem to indicate otherwise.

“I will also be launching a whistleblower’s policy at the Port Klang Authority (PKA) tomorrow,” he said.

“Besides not issuing any more letters of support, we will also be adopting some of the proposals recommended by the PKFZ corporate governance committee,” he added.

The third initiative involves ensuring that one-third of all the boards of directors within the transport ministry agencies consist of independent directors.

However, he denied that all three of the initiatives were a direct result of the PKFZ affair.

The idea, said Ong, had come during one of the National Key Result Area workshops.

“The move is to ensure good corporate governance in the ministry and its agencies,” said Ong.

Letters of support given by his predecessor in the ministry of transport had left the government in a precarious position.

Although the PKFZ development was initially meant to be a private endeavour, the letters of support gave the government little choice but to bail out the project several years back.

What began as a RM1.7 billion development had ballooned to a RM4.7 billion tab when the PKFZ project had to refinance its loans due to low take-up rate.

Attorney-general Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Patail had testified to the Public Accounts Committee that the letters were similar to guarantees and the government had no option but to repay the loans.

“After discussing this within the ministry, I decided to make this public announcement so that legislators, party members and others will not issue any more letters of support,” said the MCA president.

“This will also stop lobbyists from trying to get the government to back up their plans,” Ong added.

During an audit of the PKFZ project, PricewaterhouseCoopers had noted areas of conflict of interest when party officials were also on the board of PKA.

Meanwhile, Datuk Long See Wool will be promoted as the transport ministry’s new secretary-general.

Long, who has worked at the Ministry of Transport for 30 years, succeeds Datuk Seri Zakaria Bahari.

Zakaria’s term ends on Jan 25, 2010.

Long will be aided by assistant secretary-general Datuk Yap Kin Sian.