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Samy Vellu should not mislead Parliament, people and nation into believing
that the RM400 million MATRADE Building scandal is one of the PMC disasters
as no PMC had been involved in the project right from the beginning Media Conference Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Ipoh, Saturday): Works Minister, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu has failed to throw full and proper light on the long list of failed government infrastructure development projects running into billions and even tens of billions of ringgit, although he has given the nation and the people the belief that the Works Ministry and the Public Works Department are completely innocent parties which should not bear any responsibility or blame. I had always maintained that in the long list of failed government infrastructure constructions, involving government buildings like the MATRADE Building, highways, schools or hospitals, Samy Vellu should not be the only Minister to be held solely responsible, as full accountability might require more than one Cabinet Minister to resign.
My position has now been vindicated by Samy Vellu, who has gone public to put all the blame on the PMC or Project Management Consultants.
I do not think Samy Vellu can fully disclaim any responsibility for the long list of failed government infrastructure construction projects, and I would advise him not to mislead Parliament, people and nation into believing that the RM400 million MATRADE Building scandal, for instance, is one of the PMC disasters as no PMC had been involved in the project right from the beginning.
There is in fact a lot of confusion and ignorance about PMC – what and who is the PMC, as many are under the impression that PMC is one consultant firm with only a handful of people registered with the Finance Ministry.
There are in fact more than one hundred PMCs in the country. The then Ketua Setiausaha Perbendaharran, Tan Sri Samsudin Hitam, had issued a list of 82 PMCs registered with the Finance Ministry to all Ministry secretaries-general in a circular dated 7th June 2002.
One of these PMCs is KLIA Consultancy Services Sdn. Bhd. Its President and CEO, Tan Sri Jamilus Hussein told an international conference on project management in Kuala Lumpur in September last year that project management began to be introduced in 1990 after the experience with two world-class projects, namely the Petronas Twin Towers and the KL International Airport.
He said since 1999, there were an estimated 130 private companies of various sizes and track records registered under the Treasury that offer Project Management Consultancy (PMC) services and that “an estimated RM7 billion worth of development projects are currently being entrusted by the Government into the hands of these PMCs, so that these projects would be delivered efficiently on time, within the budget and of the specified quality”.
This would mean that since 1990, development projects worth tens of billions of ringgit would have been entrusted to the PMCs, which calls for full and proper accounting, as the purpose of having PMCs – efficient delivery on time, within the budget and of the specified quality – have not been met. Even worse, as exposed by Samy Vellu, PMC projects are more costly than PWD estimates, double or even more times!
The question is why the billion-ringgit PMC scandal had been allowed to fester for so long without proper check.
Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, should explain why the PAC had failed to focus on the PMC scandal in the past six months.
When Parliament reconvenes on Monday, MPs should be provided a full list of the failed government infrastructure development projects, divided into two categories – those entrusted to PMCs and those where the PMCs were not involved, like the RM400 million MATRADE building scandal. |