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Thursday, December 18, 2014

‘Crony firm’ gets road job despite quoting extra RM20 million, says Kuching MP

Chong Chieng Jen claims the award for the Kapit road job means at least RM20 million of taxpayers’ money has gone to enrich the 'BN crony'. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, December 18, 2014.Chong Chieng Jen claims the award for the Kapit road job means at least RM20 million of taxpayers’ money has gone to enrich the 'BN crony'. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, December 18, 2014.
A Sarawak opposition lawmaker today questioned Putrajaya’s award of a RM119.83 million road contract to an exempt “Barisan Nasional crony company” which has a paid-up capital of only RM1 million.
“How can a company undertake a RM119,830,000 construction project which is more than 100 times its paid-up capital of RM1 million?” DAP’s Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen asked at a press conference at the DAP headquarters in Kuching, naming Impian Zaman Sdn Bhd as the company.
An exempt private company does not need to file its financial account with the Companies Commission of Malaysia.
Chong, who is also the DAP state chief, said the award showed “three glaring improprieties” by the government.
He said there were 17 contractors that had submitted tender prices below RM100 million and 15 more that had submitted tender quotes below RM119 million.
“The mean (average) tender prices of these 32 contractors is about RM99 million which is RM20 million less than the award price for Impian Zaman Sdn Bhd.
“Why did the government want to pay an extra RM20 million more for the project?” he asked.
He also questioned why “established contractors, and even a public listed company” among the 32 contractors were excluded from the “selected list”.
When tender for the road was opened in early February, it was an open tender, and 53 contractors had submitted their bids for the project.
However, the Finance Ministry in a letter dated Febuary 19 cancelled the open tender process and applied the “selected tender” process, with only 10 companies, selected by the ministry, invited.
“The bottom line is, at this crony price of RM119,830,000 for the said Package B Jalan Song/Sg Yong, Kapit project, the project costs had escalated by 20% or RM20 million more than if the project were to be awarded by open tender.
“At least RM20 million of taxpayers’ money has gone to enrich the BN crony,” he said.
Chong said it was unfair to the public that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was cutting subsidies and increasing taxes to refill the government’s coffers, while his finance ministry “is still dishing out lucrative and over-priced contracts for the benefit of BN cronies at the expense of the people”.
“The country and the people are facing one of the toughest times since the 1997 currency crisis,” he said pointing to the more than 40% drop in global oil prices that in turn reduced the overall government’s revenue by about 15%, the increase to RM569 billion in government's debt, the depreciation of the ringgit and the RM171.1 billion in illicit outflow.
In September, a DAP supporter lodged a report on the secretive conversion of “open tender” to “selected tender” with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
However, Chong claimed that MACC had refused to investigate the case.
“It is proof that the MACC is more of a figurative lapdog of Najib than an enforcement body to inculcate integrity in the system.
“That is why it will not investigate the ministry which Najib heads even when there are glaring improprieties,” he said.
“At the end, the people will be forced to pay more tax to finance the financial interests of these cronies.”
- TMI

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