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Sunday, May 8, 2011

Favouritism in awarding MRT contracts

Corrupt Barisan Nasional - PETALING JAYA: The award of contracts for Mass Rapid Transit system is riddled with irregularities as there is correlation between the projects main partner and the other contractors.
The projects delivery partner MMC-Gamuda has been working closely with a company doing an independent check engineer’s role.
DAP’s PJ Utara MP Tony Pua said that an independent check engineer (ICE) role was given to a consortium led by HSS Integrated Sdn Bhd (HSSI).

“While an ICE should not have an existing relationship with the parties managing the project to ensure independence, HSSI has been the contracting engineers for Gamuda’s double-tracking projects,” he said in a statement.
Pua added that the speculated 2% consultancy charge also meant that the HSSI consortium stood to gain more than RM1 billion in fees from the estimated RM53billion project cost. This, he said, was higher than the ICE market rate of 0.8%.
According to a report by The Malaysian Insider, HSSI worked with MMC-Gamuda over the RM9 billion electrified double-tracking Padang Besar-Ipoh project. It added that the company’s relationship with MMC-Gamuda was “conveniently overlooked”.
Pua said that government-owned transport company Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (SPNB) managing director Shahril Mokhtar said that the ICE’s appointment was not finalised.
This however, was refuted when SPNB group director for project development Zulkifli Yussof admitted to HSSI’s ICE involvement since February, Pua said.
With all these happening, MMC-Gamuda’s role is not just of a project delivery partner but also an awarder of contracts.
“While MMC-Gamuda is meant only to be a project delivery partner and all projects are to be awarded by SPNB, now it gets to dictate who gets the project contracts,” Pua said.


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