The Malaysian Insight

THE DAP-led Penang government overpaid by more than four times for detailed design costs to develop three roads in Penang, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan said today.

He said he was giving Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng a week to answer these allegations before reporting it to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

“If he cannot give a proper explanation to our questions, we will have a perception there is corruption or abuse of power,” Rahman said in a press conference at Better Nation Foundation in Cyberjaya, Selangor.

Rahman, also the Barisan Nasional (BN) strategic communications director, said the Penang Tunnel Project will consist of two parts – the three roads and the tunnel.

The roads in question are:

- Tanjung Bungah to Teluk Bahang paired road (10.53km)

- Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu highway to Air Itam bypass (5.7km)

- Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu highway to Persiaran Gurney bypass (4km).

BN strategic communications deputy director Eric See-To said the Board of Engineers (LJM) had investigated earlier and found that the detailed design cost for the three roads could have been much lower.

He showed reporters at the press conference a letter by LJM dated June 7 this year which displayed detailed investigations into the expenditure.

“In LJM’s letter, they found that the RM177,485,756 paid by the Penang government to the concession holder is four times higher than the maximum allowed under the gazetted fees which LJM calculated to be RM 41,052,003.62.

“Construction of the three roads was supposed to start in 2015 and finish in 2018, but no physical construction has started yet,” he said.

He also questioned Lim why the consultation fees for these three roads were 10 times the allowable maximum percentage of LJM’s gazetted scale.

“The cost of building the Tanjung Bungah paired road is RM377,566,000 but why is its consultation fees RM120,435,623?

“The Penang government should explain why the consultancy fee is so high for a simple paired road,” he said.

He added that there were also irregularities with the consultation cost of the Penang Tunnel and further challenged Lim to clarify these irregularities. – June 20, 2017.