RM250m fisheries project raises a stink

KOTA KINABALU: Furious Sabah Umno leaders are demanding that a “secretive” move to award a RM250-million integrated fisheries infrastructure contract to an outsider company be aborted.

Word of the “closed-door” project in Sandakan has thrown up a big enough stink to force authorities to recall the tender bid.

“This very big fisheries infrastructure project earmarked to be built somewhere in Sandakan is now delayed because the tender is being recalled,” said a source.

The tender, it is learnt, is being reopened as a result of “pressure” from certain state leaders who were told that Sabah companies had not been invited to take part in the tender process.

Nothing much is known about the project except that it is big and costly, but it is enough to whet the appetites of many in the political and business worlds where the two are often one and the same in the state.

FMT reliably learnt that certain state government leaders are fuming after learning that the RM250- million project undertaken by the federal LKIM (Lembaga Kemajuan Ikan Malaysia) in Sandakan is to be awarded to an “outside company” and that local Sabah companies were not invited to take part in the tender.

Tender reopened

A state government source, who requested anonymity, said that state leaders especially from Sabah Umno are furious at LKIM for being secretive with the tender of such a big project.

“Some powerful people, you know who, are not happy at all… hence the tender is being reopened,” the source told FMT.

It is also learnt that certain state Umno leaders are dissatisfied with the lack of “transparency” and that even Chief Minister Musa Aman was kept in the dark.

Not many people in the state are aware of the fisheries project, said the source.

Umno assemblyman for Buang Sayang, Abdul Rahim Ismail, who was LKIM chairman until recently, had a fallout with Musa soon after the 2008 general election when he was dropped as assistant minister.

At the recent State Legislative Assembly sitting, Musa ticked off Rahim for questioning the state government’s fiscal policies and for failing to turn up to hear the government’s explanation during the sitting. - FMT