Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced on 2nd February an additional allocation of RM120 million to Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) to help resolve the water problem in Selangor.
This latest bailout fund for Syabas proved 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 proved 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 showed that the current crisis could have been prevented had Syabas had invested its own funds on the exercise earlier.
Why didn't Syabas invest its own funds?
It should be emphasized that under the Water Concession Agreement, there is absolutely no obligation by the federal and state government to provide financial grants or loans for Syabas to carry out its obligations to upgrade all the required water infrastructure to fulfil its obligations to provide quality water services to the people of Selangor and KL.
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 bailout Syabas. Over the past 3-4 years, the Federal Government has bailed-out Syabas to the tune of billions of ringgit 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, the Mininster of Energy, Green Technology and Water, Datuk Peter Chin has not revealed if Syabas has even repaid a single sen of the RM2.9 billion bond bail-out by the Federal Government.
Over the above period, the BN government has already extended bailout funds of RM3.41 billion to Syabas in total.
Total RM3.41 BILLION bailout so far
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 profit and interests.
Najib’s economic transformation call is hence a complete sham as he has shown complete unwillingness over the past 4 years to allow the people interest to come first, ahead of BN’s cronies.
[Ed's note: According to the Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd annual report, executive chairman Rozali Ismail earned a salary of RM8.255 mil, bonuses of RM2.39 mil, benefits-in-kind of RM405,646, EPF RM1.777 mil, leave passage of RM663,582 and other expenses of RM3.754mil. This amounted to RM17.25mil for the year ended December 31, 2011. Puncak Niaga is the holding company of SYABAS and Rozali's business flagship. Rozali is a senior Umno member and the former treasurer of Selangor Umno]
Tony Pua is the DAP MP for PJ Utara
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