Chew steps down as scandal-ridden Pempena's chief

MCA Wanita chief Chew Mei Fun has resigned from the Tourism Ministry’s controversy-ridden subsidiary Pempena Sdn Bhd eight months after she was picked to head the agency.

“Since I have completed the first phase of organisation restructuring, (and) before moving into a longer period of second phase of organisation revamping, I felt it is time for me to resign from Pempena as executive chairman in order to make way for the management of Tourism Malaysia, the holding company of Pempena, to move the company forward.”

Pempena - a national tourism development company set up in 1976 by Tourism Malaysia - could chalked up as much as RM50 million in losses due to a litany of bad investments, criminal breach of trust and financial improprieties.

Chew (left), who was appointed to helm Pempena soon after she lost her Petaling Jaya Utara parliamentary seat in the March 8 general elections, said her resignation would take effect today.

Allegations against Pempena first surfaced in a July 2 Malaysiakini report regarding a memorandum by Pempena staff to Tourism Minister Azalina Othman, alleging graft and breach of trust by two key figures in the company.

Among others, the allegations stated that the duo had pocketed commissions when refinancing luxury vehicles for a high-end tourist taxi service, approved several lucrative contracts to RM2 companies, overstating the cost of creating an e-tourism portal by about RM5 million, and by passing the Pempena board of directors in 'investing' in a restaurant project in Melbourne.

The alleged wrongdoings happened before Chew took over Pempena. Then Pempena's boss was another MCA politician, Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung.

“During my stewardship in Pempena for the last eight months, despite facing unfair allegations and various negative publicity ... I had patiently strive to resolve problems and find solutions for the company,” said Chew in press statement today.

She said that among the actions taken was the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) to undertake a business review of Pempena.

Need to devote time to rebuilt MCA

In a scathing report, PWC revealed that Pempena had invested a total of RM54.5 million in 24 companies, but only four generated profits.

The report also said that Pempena invested in five non-functional companies and recommended divesting the companies which would result in a loss of approximately RM20 million.

PWC also found that the RM18.3 million of Pempena’s Executive Taxi Services (Pets) luxury taxi project has so far recorded a loss of up to RM7.8 million.

The PWC report however did not deal with a number of other allegations highlighted by Malaysiakini, such as the RM10 million e-tourism portal.

Chew said that following the PWC report, Pempena has “retain and enhance its investment in 14 investee companies and to exit from the rest of 10".

She added that with her election as MCA Wanita chief two months ago, she is now required to devote more time to transforming and rebuilding the party.