'BN has spent RM3.41bil to bail out Syabas'

The additional RM120 million allocation to Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) announced by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak (below) has further pushed the amount of the ‘bailout funds’ from the federal government to RM3.41 billion in just four years, claimed DAP.

This shows nothing but Syabas' incompetence and BN’s continued support to its crony, said DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua in a statement issued last night.

He pointed out that theRM120 million for Syabas has proven that the Selangor and Kuala Lumpur water crisis has nothing to do with the shortage of raw water which requires immediate water transfer from Pahang via the exhorbitant RM9 billion Langat 2 project.

“Instead, it proves that the crisis was a result of a deliberate under-investment by Syabas to upgrade its treatment plants, build additional treated water capacity as well as to repair and replace old and broken pipes.

“With the RM120 million meant for the above exercise, it shows that the current crisis could have been prevented had Syabas invested its own funds on the exercise earlier.”

According to Pua, under the water concession agreement between the government and Syabas, there is absolutely no obligation for the federal and state government to provide financial grants or loans for Syabas to carry out its obligation to upgrade all the required water infrastructure.

Hence the RM120 million handout to Syabas is not a grant by the federal government intended to assist the people of the state but is instead a well-disguised scheme to bail out Syabas, asserted Pua.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP then recounted the previous 'bailout funds' extended by the BN federal government to keep Syabas afloat.

“In December 2009, the BN government has extended a 20-year RM320.8 million zero-interest soft loan to Syabas.

“In October 2011, the BN government again extended another 20-year RM110 million loan to Syabas for the same purpose.

“And in November, when Syabas outstanding bonds of RM2.9 billion was nearing its due date for repayment, the federal government again bailed out Syabas by taking over the entire RM2.9 billion bond.

“To date, Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Peter Chin (left) has not revealed if Syabas has even repaid a single sen of the RM2.9 billion bond bail-out by the federal government,” he said.

Hence, the total accumulated bill to date is RM3.41 billion, Pua stressed.

Despite the repeated offers by the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government to acquire Syabas or even to terminate the Syabas concession for its failure to fulfil its obligations, said Pua, the federal government has refused to support Selangor’s proposals.

“It is clear to all Malaysians that the BN government would rather continue to keep Syabas afloat by keeping the company on life-support with billions of ringgit of the rakyat’s money to protect it’s crony’s profits and interests.

“Najib’s economic transformation call is hence a complete sham as he has shown complete unwillingness over the past four years to allow the people’s interest to come first, ahead of BN’s cronies,” he added.