A DAP state assembly representative, blamed for the cancellation of a trip to Cairo for members of Selangor's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), today dismissed the allegation as baseless.

Ng Suee Lim, who is the sole opposition member in the PAC, said he was not responsible as he was not the last to cancel his participation in the tour.

According to the Sekinchan state assemblyperson, he was the fourth on the list of those who pulled out from the trip which made headlines last week after it was revealed that participants would also be treated to belly-dancing, among other leisure pursuits.

He claimed that another member withdrew after him and therefore it is wrong to blame him for the cancellation.

This is in contrary to the claims made by PAC members Lee Hwa Beng (photo, left) and Ahmad Bhari Abdul Rahman at a press conference over the weekend to announce the cancellation.

The duo alleged that the trip was called off after Ng withdrew at the eleventh hour, leaving only three members. Initially there were seven PAC members, some of whom were to be accompanied by spouses at their own expense.

"Their statement that my withdrawal meant there were not enough participants is baseless. There were five people including me. After I pulled out on Jan 18, there was still four members left. (PAC member) Kamalam Ganapathy only cancelled after me, that was on Jan 19," said Ng when contacted.

"On the name list of those going which I received on Jan 7, Kamalam's name was still there. I only read of her pullout in The Malay Mail on Jan 20. Their accusations are baseless and meant merely to cover the real facts of the issue."

However, Kamalam added another twist to the saga when she denied withdrawing at the eleventh hour.

She said her decision to forego the trip was made weeks earlier on grounds that she had been to Egypt and thus saw no reason to revisit the country.

"I cancelled much, much earlier because I had been to Egypt 10 years ago," she added when contacted today.

Waste of funds

Ng said the core issue is that the trip was a waste of public funds and by casting aspersions on him, his detractors were trying to divert attention from this.

At Saturday's press conference Lee (photo) and Ahmad stressed that the eight-day trip was "100 percent educational" despite the itinerary stating only two days of official work.

The duo also denied that the trip was cancelled because of the public outcry it evoked. Apart from a belly dancing dinner-cum-cruise along the Nile River, the members were also scheduled to visit the pyramids, Sphinx, Suez Canal and Moses' hot springs among other places of attraction.

The two PAC members also threatened to get Ng to pay the penalty, which they said would most probably be imposed by the travel agency for the last-minute cancellation.

However, Ng argued that the trip should have been cancelled earlier.

"To waste funds on items that are not appropriate for such a (study) trip is not right. Anyway, the penalty for late-cancellation is usually not much. It might be 30 percent (of the deposits) of the payment for the committee members.

"The issue is, Bhari and Lee will have to pay for their wives' cancellation and they will lose their money," he said, adding that this angered the committee members more than the loss of public funds.

Ng is also prepared to see his peers in court should they insist that he foots the bill.

However, it is learnt that the state government had paid the full amount two weeks before the scheduled departure date, set for last Saturday.

Furthermore, according to a source who wished to remain anonymous, discussion of the issue of refunds has not yet identified the amount 'salvageable' as the state government and the tour agency that arranged the trip have not met since the cancellation.

In a related development, Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang in a statement urged the Selangor government to be appreciative of Ng's "public-spiritedness" in effecting the cancellation of a "luxury trip".

He said the state government should unanimously pass a motion expressing its appreciation of his exemplary conduct.

Lim, the former DAP national chairperson, also called for a survey to be conducted gauging public approval of the controversial trip and to determine whether such trips would in fact be educational and make PAC members "more effective custodians of the propriety and integrity of public funds".