Balfour Beatty wins Ampang LRT extension job, Treasury papers show

PETALING JAYA, June 27 — Putrajaya has decided to award a multi-million ringgit rail extension job on the Ampang line to the Balfour Beatty-Invensys Consortium, official documents disclosed by PKR today showed.

The rail builders led by the British engineering firm were the lowest bidders for the light rail transit (LRT) open tender that closed on June 16, 2011, offering to take on the project for RM950 million. The highest bid was RM1.45 billion.

PKR handed out copies of the minutes of a January 25 Finance Ministry committee meeting, signed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, that showed the government had decided on the builder, ending speculation over claims that another consortium led by local firm, George Kent Bhd, would win.

“In the minutes of this meeting, George Kent’s name was not even mentioned, and Najib himself signed the minutes agreeing to select Balfour Beatty-Invensys Consortium as the contractor for the project,” PKR’s chief strategist, Rafizi Ramli told reporters today.

The 34-year-old, who had led the expose against the RM250 million National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal that is now being tried in court, has previously questioned Najib’s commitment to fighting corruption and misappropriation.

The Business Times had reported two days ago that the George Kent group, which had been knocked out in an earlier bid, was tipped to get the contract, triggering an outcry from opposition political parties.

The newspaper had cited sources with knowledge on the matter as saying the winning bidder for the job was expected to be announced by the government within the next few days.

Eight groups had made a bid for the Ampang line extension systems contract.

The Business Times first reported that George Kent may win the job in July last year.

Prasarana, a fully-owned government company established by the Finance Ministry, had budgeted RM1.5 billion for the system works.

Prasarana is spending some RM7 billion for the extension of both the Kelana Jaya and Ampang LRT rail networks.

The Ampang network will be extended by 17.7km.