DAP SRI AMAN

Chong Poses 5 Questions on the Pan Borneo Highway Contract to BN reps


The Sarawak BN elected representatives, the likes of Abdullah Saidol (ADUN for SEMOP), Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah (Assistant Minister) and Michael Manyin have totally evaded my queries on the award of Pan Borneo Highway project to Lebuhraya Borneo Utara Sdn Bhd (LBU) and tried to give a racial twist to my critics on the award of the said project to LBU.


In their statements today, the 3 of them seem to have either purposely avoided answering my queries or just could not understand the issues.


As such, for their clarity, I will put my questions in words that are easier for them to understand.  The 5 questions for the 3 BN leaders to answer are as follows:

1. While the Government claims to help Sarawak contractors, why is the Board of Directors of the appointed Main Contractor, LBU, controlled by West Malaysians (4 out of 7 of the directors are West Malaysians)?

2. While the Government claims to help Bumiputra, why is there not a single Dayak in the Board of Directors nor Shareholdings of LBU or its holding companies?  Dayaks are also Bumiputra, why are they left out?

On this question, I would like to remind Abdu Karim that by raising this issue, I am not importing the so-called West Malaysian racial politics into Sarawak.  It is the act of the Federal Government to award the contract to a single-race company that is importing the West Malaysian racial policy into Sarawak.  I am merely stating a fact so that such racial policy can be rectified.

3. While Adenan is preaching integrity and transparency and that the Sarawak cabinet ministers have signed the so-called “Integrity Pledges”, why is a contract worth more than RM10 billion awarded without open tender process?

4. While LBU has only been registered in 2011 and zero track record in construction and any trading activity, why was LBU appointed as the Main Contractor for the Pan Borneo Highway project? Is the government intending to continue with the “Ali Baba” contractor modus operandi in the implementation of its projects?

5. While the government is talking about cutting-costs, why create an Ali Baba middleman?  Would it not make better sense for the Government to break down the whole stretch of Pan Borneo Highway into 20 – 30 smaller contracts, carry out open-tender processes and award the contracts directly to the ones doing the work, rather than going through LBU who will get the lion share of commission / profit, leaving the actual contractors smaller budgets to do the job?


Michael Manyin was saying that the works for the projects will not be dominated by one single race.  He is either playing ignorant or just pure ignorant.  The whole contract has already been awarded to LBU. It is now up to LBU to decide who will be the sub-contractors.


It is well-known in the industry that Main Contractor will take between 10% - 20% of the money and leaving the balance for the sub-contractors who actually do the job.  As the Minister in-charge of public works, it would be a joke if Michael Manyin is not aware of this improper practice which has become a norm in public construction works for the Government.


I hope the 3 BN elected representatives can understand and reply to my 5 questions posed above and be accountable to the people of Sarawak.


18-4-2015
Chong Chieng Jen
MP for Bandar Kuching
ADUN for Kota Sentosa