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Press Statement (1)

by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Ipoh, Sunday) : Works Minister, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu should make a ministerial statement in Parliament on Tuesday on why the per kilometer cost of the additional 11 km of the East Coast Highway is three times more expensive than the original 174 km.

Samy Vellu announced in Kuala Terengganu on Friday that the cost of building the East Coast Highway has gone up by RM340mil from RM1.7 billion to RM2.1 billion, claiming that this is caused by the new alignment which is longer by 11km from the original 174km and the rise in the prices of bitumen and other materials.

As a result, the East Coast Highway  connecting Kuantan to Kampung Gemuruh, Terengganu would only be ready in the middle of 2009, a year later than the original schedule. 

This is a most exorbitant rate of increase, as the per kilometer cost of the  new 11 km extension of the East Coast Highway which works to some  RM30 million per km  is  three times that of the original 174 km, at  RM10 million per km.

Surely the rise in the price of bitumen, which Samy Vellu said had gone up by about 30%,  cannot justify a 300%  increase in the cost of the additional 11 km to the East Coast Highway, i.e.  three times the per kilometer cost of the original contract.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi raised the curtain to give Malaysians “a peep” at the shocking waste of enormous amounts of  public funds when he said that the top 15 government linked companies (GLCs) could save up to RM10 billion by improving their procurement processes, as this amounts to about one-fifth of their total procurement cost a year.  GLCs spend over RM50 billion a year to buy goods and services, an amount equivalent to 10 per cent of the country’s economy.

Samy Vellu has also inadvertently and unintentionally given Malaysians another “peep” at how enormous public funds are being squandered, viz:  privatization and in particular  the award of highway contracts.  It is imperative that Samy Vellu live up to the new commitment of accountability and transparency  of the Abdullah administration and justify  the 300 per cent increase in the cost of 11 km extension of the East Coast Highway allegedly on the ground of 30%  increase in the price of construction materials.

(30/04/2006)