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Heads must roll for the long
list of failed government infrastructure development projects including
highways, schools and hospitals – whether Works Ministry, PWD, Finance
Ministry or PMC - to begin to inculcate the culture of responsibility as
the first step to create a “First World Infrastructure, First World
Mentality” mindset in the national leadership Media Statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang (Parliament House, Friday): DAP will invoke a rarely-used parliamentary standing order next week to ask a question without notice to demandi full Ministerial statement on failed government infrastructure development projects including highways, schools and hospitals because of the hijacking and usurpation of the traditional role, responsibilities and powers of the Public Works Department by the Project Management Consultants (PMC) under the patronage of the Finance Ministry. Works Minister, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu has squarely pinpointed the blame for the long list of failed infrastructure development projects on the former Ketua Setiausaha of the Finance Ministry, Datuk Samsuddin Hitam, revealing that the traditional role, responsibilities and powers of the Public Works Department to monitor and supervise the projects had been hijacked and usurped by the PMC directly under the authority of Samsuddin? What is the truth and who must bear responsibility for the long list of failures of the government infrastructure development projects – the Public Works Department and the Works Ministry, or the PMC and the Finance Ministry? Whoever is finally and fully responsible, heads must roll for the long list of failed government infrastructure development projects including highways, schools and hospitals – whether Works Ministry, PWD, Finance Ministry or PMC - to begin to inculcate the culture of responsibility as the first step to create a “First World Infrastructure, First World Mentality” mindset in the national leadership. Parliament and the nation want to know whose head must roll! When Parliament reconvenes next week, the country should be told the full sad story of the long list of failed government infrastructure projects. The ideal position would be for the Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister to present a White Paper listing out all the failed government infrastructure development projects, giving a separate list of those which are the result of the hijacking and usurpation of the traditional role, responsibilities and powers of the Public Works Department by the PMC. In July last year, the then DAP Member of Parliament for Kota Melaka, Kerk Kim Hock sent two sets of documents which he had received through the post to the then Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad which set out serious allegations of abuse of powers in procurement procedures as well as financial mismanagement and irregularities by a top Treasury official. The documents also referred to the scandalous appointment of the PMC and construction projects with financial irregularities and mismanagements running into hundreds of millions and even billions of ringgit. Two PMC companies specifically cited were,
During the parliamentary sitting on 4th September last year, Kerk specifically asked the Prime Minister the outcome of the investigations into the allegations of financial irregularities/mismanagement and abuses of power in the procurement procedures contained in the two sets of documents which he had submitted to the Prime Minister three months earlier. The reply from the Prime Minister’s Department was: “YAB Perdana Menteri telah menerima dokumen tersebut dan tuduhan-tuduhan yang dibuat sedang diteliti.”
As it is more than one year four months since Kerk had handed the two sets of documents to the Prime Minister, Parliament should be told next week the full outcome of investigations into the serious allegations of abuses of power, procurement procedure irregularities and financial mismanagement in infrastructure development projects, especially as these allegations appear to have been confirmed by Samy Vellu’s recent exposes of the PMC hijacking and usurpation of the powers, role and responsibilities of the Public Works Department. |