Serious questions for Bintulu Port Holdings Berhad and its CEO, Dato Mior Ahmad Baiti to answer.

Kuching: Bntulu Port Holdings Berhad (BPHB) has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers to carry out a detailed study on the viability of the proposed Samalaju port project in Bintulu. ~The Star, April 11, 2011.  

Did anyone in Bintulu Port Holdings Berhad do a background check on the consultants, PwC Malaysia, before the decision to hire them to carry out the viability study was made?

The answer has to be no, because there is no way the senior management of any company, big or small, will pick PricewaterhouseCoopers as the consultants for anything, unless of course, PwC had given them an explanation on the many allegations against their Country Managing Partner, Chin Kwai Fatt and his fellow senior partners.

Did the CEO of Bintulu Port Holdings Berhad (BPHB), Dato Mior Ahmad Baiti  Bin Mior Lub Ahmad, get a full explanation from Chin Kwai Fatt & Co on the ongoing fraud they are committing, before he picked them for the job? 

So now, we have to forward a number of questions to Dato Mior Ahmad Baiti, the CEO of BPHB, so that we can get that which has proven to be elusive so far, the answers from Chin Kwai Fatt and PricewaterhouseCoopers on the allegations against them.

1. Dato Mior Ahmad Baiti, do you know the answer as to why the largest Auditing Firm in the country, PwC Malaysia, which does the audits for more than a hundred public listed companies and many important corporations, have Senior Partners namely; Chin Kwai Fatt, Dato Johan Raslan, Lee Tuck Heng and Khoo Chuan Keat, who use the services of an auditor who has been charged by the SC for clear cut fraud, as their own Auditors?

Dato Mior, why did you pick as consultants, an auditing firm that uses the services of an accounting company whose engagement partner has been charged for fraud, for your viability study?

2. Dato Mior Ahmad baiti, what explanation did Dato' Johan Raslan, the Executive Chairman of PwC in  Malaysia,  give you as to why he uses the services of a tainted auditor; because as a member of  the Securities Commission of Malaysia's Corporate Governance Consultative Committee, he must have been fully aware of the charges against the very same auditors that does the audits for PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting Sdn Bhd (464379-U), a company in which Dato Johan is the majority shareholder cum director? 

3. Dato Mior Ahmad Baiti, what is the explanation given to you by Chin Kwai Fatt, the managing Director of PwC in Malaysia, as to why he and his fellow senior partners had appointed two individuals who have never been involved in the consulting business of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Malaysia, a Mr Foong Weng Chee and a Ms Chu Kum Yoon, as the Directors for the consulting company that they sold of to IBM Corp, namely PwC Consulting Sdn Bhd (289801-A)?

How did Chin Kwai Fatt manage to convince Dato Mior that PricewaterhouseCoopers is the best choice as consultants for BPHB?

Dato Mior Ahmad Baiti, the list of questions that has to be asked of you is a long one, and the answers you give will be of paramount importance to the shareholders of BPHB and the people of Sarawak, in convincing them that the viability study that BPHB is planning to use for the project has been carried out by consultants who give no room for doubt whatsoever as to their fitness to carry out and present the findings.

The many other consulting companies out there are furious that BPHB has chosen PricewaterhouseCoopers for this important study, not because of the money, but how it will reflect on their industry, if the study is found to be ridden with the contempt for truth which PwC in Malaysia seems to have become synonymous with.

Dato Mior Ahmad Baiti, we do not know how and why PricewaterhouseCoopers managed to convince you and your senior managers that they are the best consultants for the job, but we will expect that BPHB will be able to defend to the fullest extent this decision that you have announced.