Istana contract given to dormant crony firm, says Anwar

By Rahmah Ghazali

KUALA LUMPUR: The scandal surrounding the new Istana Negara took a twist today when Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim alleged that the government had awarded the contract to a dormant company belonging to an Umno crony.

Anwar said the construction contract, worth RM650 million, was awarded to one Syarikat Maya Maju (M) Sdn Bhd on Oct 26, 2007, which he said belonged to Man Mat, a former treasurer of Umno’s Merbok division.

He said he had found out that the company was "dormant, dead and not active" and had no business activity when the government awarded the contract to it.

According to him, the company registered with the Companies Commission only in August 2008, a year after the award.

"The company did not even have any track record in the construction industry," he said.

He also said company was licensed neither by the Contractors' Service Centre nor the Construction Industry Development Board and had thereby violated legal requirements.

Injunction filed

The alleged crony contractor got into trouble, he said, when another company with a similar name filed an injunction against it.

"Another company, named Maya Maju (M) Sdn Bhd, which is owned by someone else, had filed an injunction against the company to prevent the directors from using the name on Jan 23, 2009,” he said.

"But this ruling was subsequently overruled by the Court of Appeal."

He also said an architectural firm, Abd Mohd Rejab/JR Design Works, issued a winding-up notice against Maya Maju (M) Sdn Bhd for its failure to pay for design works.

The new palace, located in Jalan Duta, first became the subject of controversy when the government said it would cost more than RM800 million, and not RM400 million as announced in 2006.

Subsequently, it sparked public outrage when activists alleged that foreigners working at the construction site were not being paid.

Anwar said the opposition would bring the matter to the Public Accounts Committee for further investigations.

courtesy of FMT