DAP Sarawak: Hospital expansion project over-priced by 200%

Build urgently needed multi-storey carpark first, state DAP leader Chong urges government, blaming cronyism for other proposed upgrades at Sarawak General Hospital.

KUCHING: The RM378 million pricing for the expansion and upgrade of facilities at the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) here exceeds “all reasonable construction costs” by over 200 per cent, tripling standard industrial costs, state DAP chairman Chong Chien Jen said.

Chong alleged that the project’s cost overruns was for the benefit of “cronies” and that this is especially seen with the main feature of the expansion, a multi-storey carpark, which should only cost 10 times less than the overall expansion project.

“Building a multi-storey carpark should cost RM35 million at most. And that is the thing that the people here need urgently. Even the staff at SGH urgently need this carpark,” Chong Chien told reporters here yesterday,

“Why must the government lump this project with a budget hotel, a pathology centre and a daycare unit and thereby delay the implementation of this project?” he asked.

“The expansion project includes a multi-storey carpark building with 1,750 parking bays, a budget hotel with 160 rooms, a day-care block, seven operating theatres, four endoscopy rooms and a pathology block with laboratory testing facilities and blood bank.

Chong estimated that for 1,750 parking bays, given another equal surface area for the driveway within the building, the total surface area the multi-storey carpark would take up is 43,750 square metres.

Citing Sarawak’s industrial average costs provided by quantity surveying firm KPK Group, Chong said the average costs should be around RM700 per square metre.

With a 15 per cent leeway for contingency expenses, Chong said the carpark should not cost more than RM35 million.

By DAP’s own estimations, the total cost of the entire project should be around RM100 million.

“With the stalling of this multi-storey carpark, it is reasonable to conclude that it was never meant to be. It was only used by BN to fish for votes election after election.

“After all, the budget hotel is for the benefit of the cronies and this carpark is for the benefit of the people” Chong said.

Last November, the cost for the whole project was reported at RM351 million by Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam in Parliament.

Last Thursday, Senator Dr Sim Kui Hian, who is also Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president announced additional costs of RM27 million due to the GST.

He said he had chosen not to comment on the issue as the project had yet to be implemented and that the GST was the final “stumbling block” to its implementation.

Sim was the former head of the Department of Cardiology and head of Clinical Research Centre of SGH. He was appointed as state minister of local government in Chief Minister Adenan Satem’s Cabinet last week.

“With the GST, the additional cost could be about RM26 million. So who is going to absorb that? If it were 1 per cent, the contractor would have absorbed the cost. Maybe, the RM20 plus million is the profit of the contractor so why would he want to do a project for free,” Sim was quoted as saying.

A 6 per cent GST on the original RM315 million costing amounts to RM21 million.

“The reason given by Dr Sim that the GST component was not taken into account cannot be true because as late as last year, the contractor had not been appointed, whereas GST was implemented on April 1, last year,” Chong said.

“It is not possible that a contractor would finalise their cost as late as early 2016, without including the GST component,” he added.

“The reason given by Dr Sim cannot be acceptable to the people of Sarawak. I think the GST has been used as a cover up for the fact that the government has no money to implement this project in the first place.

“And this fact was covered up during the Sarawak election two weeks ago, so as to not affect Barisan Nasional’s chances,” Chong said.