RazakSat-2, another expensive mega project waiting to fail?
On 26 September 2013, Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Dr. Abu Bakar b. Mohamad Diah answered my question on the federal government’s satellite programme RazakSat-2.
RazakSat-2 is a continuation of the RM142 million imaging satellite project, RazakSat-1 which was launched into space from Kwajalein Island on 21 April 2010. Merely ONE year after that, RazakSat-1 programme was terminated due to major failures. 1,328 high-resolution images from RazakSat-1 could not be used because they were inaccurate upto 37 kilometres. In the words of the Auditor General in 2011, “an image of an area in Sungai Buloh and Subang missed by 37 km and captured Kuala Selangor” even though the satellite was designed to capture images within 1km accuracy.
The Auditor General further stated that the state-owned Astronautic Technology Sdn Bhd. (ATSB) which operated RazakSat-1 already sustained a loss of RM10.89 million in 2009 before the satellite was even launched.
In reply to my question on the status of RazakSat-2 which was announced TWO (2) years ago in 2011, the Deputy Minister said that the programme is now at the stage of “selecting technological partners” to work with ATSB.
I want to highlight TWO (2) critical problems with the Deputy Minister’s response:
Project cost increased 35% to RM271.9 million from RM200 million
I am shocked to find that the cost of RazakSat-2 has increased to RM271.9 million. When it was announced in 2011, RazakSat-2 was costed at RM200 million, already more than 40% increase from RazakSat-1.
Now the cost of RazakSat-2 further increased by 35% to RM271.9 million.
How come that even without any substantial work done since its announcement in 2011, the project cost increased another RM71.9 million.
The project is now delayed to 2016
RazakSat-2 was announced in September 2011 by former Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Maximus Ongkili and the satellite was scheduled to be completed by 2015.
Two (2) years have passed and now the government is telling us that they are still in search of technological partners to work with ATSB. The Deputy Minister said that the satellite launch will be postponed to 2016 but looking at present stage it is in, it is doubtful that even this will actually happen.
Ironically, Singapore which announced its first commercial remote sensing satellite TeLEOS-1 early this year will launch the satellite into space by 2015.
Conclusion
I will raise further issues with the Deputy Minister’s response in subsequent statements. But right now the government must answer these two urgent questions as they have to do with the escalating cost of a mega project which has not even started TWO (2) years after it was announced. The delay in this project reminds us of the delay in launching RazakSat-1 which eventually failed and cost the country RM142 million. There seems to be a lack of serious commitment by the government in this matter other than to spend more money.
I hope the government will give us a thorough and honest report of the situation, including why the ballooning cost and publish the post-mortem report on the failure of RazakSat-1 as well as what will be done to avoid the same failure in RazakSat-2.
