The Malaysian Insight

PRASARANA Malaysia Berhad’s financial shape has gone from bad to worse after it was forced to take up responsibility in a Saudi project, said Pandan member of parliament Rafizi Ramli.

He said he had received confidential information on the financial status of the project in Saudi Arabia, which showed major losses borne by Malaysians.

Prasarana is involved in the Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah Metro Southern Line and has been Makkah Metro shadow operator since 2014.

To ensure the information received was accurate, Rafizi said, he had posed a written question to the prime minister on the amount that was spent by Prasarana on the project, compared with the profit received.

In his reply, the prime minister said the revenue as of June 30 was RM580 million.

“It tallies with the leaked management financial report,” said Rafizi.

The revenue in the first two years was RM530 million.

“If the revenue for June this year was RM50 million, it confirms that the reply from the prime minister is not far off from the leaked report.”

A counter-check of the expenditure showed a match in the figures reported and the prime minister’s reply.

Rafizi said RM630 million was spent in the first two years until May this year, and RM49 million in June, as reported by the prime minister.

He said the projection by Prasarana that the project would incur losses of up to RM142 million until next year was correct.

“Why is Prasarana being burdened with the metro project in Saudi Arabia when it is facing losses every year, and its operational costs are higher than the sale of tickets?

“What is worse is that I was informed by Malaysian workers there that Malaysians cannot use the metro as it is only for a specific citizenship.” – July 26, 2017.