by DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, March 12: The Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA74), despite being a short act, grants extraordinary powers that could be susceptible to abuse, Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan points out.
In a press statement, Voon highlighted that the act (PDA74) gives exceptionally wide powers to the prime minister to do almost anything concerning the control and direction of Petronas and all other matters mentioned in the Act.
“The wide powers given in the Act could easily be subjected to abuse by the prime minister. The Act does not impose any obligation on the prime minister to disclose anything in the management of Petronas in parliament. The prime minister is not accountable to parliament for his actions,” he stated.
“As it is now, it seems that the prime minister can control the production of crude oil and gas and only prime minister knows how much crude oil and gas are extracted from Sarawak and Sabah,” he added.
Voon further emphasised that the PDA74 provides no provisions for the Sarawak and Sabah governments to access critical information about the volume of oil and gas extracted from their territories or how the revenues are managed.
“The robbing or taking away of the oil and gas resources of Sarawak and Sabah by PDA74 is not justified causing much loss to Sarawak and Sabah.
“It is time for the Sarawak and Sabah governments to seek PDA74 be repealed and to have all oil and gas resources be returned to Sarawak and Sabah,” he asserted. – DayakDaily
