I was shocked over the news revealed by Public Accounts Committee (PAC) reported that two contractors namely WCT Engineering Berhad and Global Upline Sdn Bhd had failed to complete the upgrading construction of Kota Kinabalu International Airport and caused the government had to fork out another RM194.86 million of public fund to complete the construction.
I urge government to not only take “stern” action, but should immediately take legal action to ask for compensation from contractors who refused to obey the contract. The additional 250 percent of cost should not be paid by Transport Ministry but they are the responsibility of the contractors who had signed the contract with government.
According to PAC report, the construction should be completed by year 2012, but the contractors had failed to meet the requirement of the contract and left out a few problems behind to the new contractor which may harm the public interest.
First of all, the contractors are appointed via direct negotiation is which I deem it is the root of problem of causing this happening. I had repeatedly call the government stop the direct negotiation process and should use a more transparent and accountable open tender process when awarding construction contract.
The direct negotiated tender process which is not transparent and accountable may affect the public interest, as we see KKIA scandal case is just tip of iceberg in Malaysia, there are proven disadvantages for direct negotiation such as Tawau Green Energy Geothermal Power Plant which was allegedly involved in massive logging.
Secondly, commenting on AirAsia move from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1, according to PAC report, because of the construction project of connecting Taxiway Charlie and Taxiway Mike is not completed yet, it would affect the efficiency of AirAsia’s operation as well as its cost will be going up if we force AirAsia to move to Terminal 1 without comprehensive planning.
I would like to ensure that the construction must be done by end of 2014 before AirAsia move from terminal 2 to Terminal 1 otherwise it would definitely affect the entire operational cost of AirAsia and low-cost aviation industry as a whole without proper planning.
PAC report and Auditor Report 2012 also revealed the scandal that Instrument Landing System (ILS) which is purposely to assist pilot to land on airport was still not being installed at KKIA runway as the runway upgrading construction is in process, however the whole facilities and equipment of ILS had already been paid for full cost yet it is not installed and equipped until now.
The government should immediately explain how much of cost to purchase ILS in details. Why we buy the whole facility of ILS and abandon there for few years and affected the function of facility as well as caused wastage of public fund? The delay of installment ILS had caused serious loss by the government and also shows the inefficiency of the project.
I also urge the government to take full consideration on the proposal of AirAsia move from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 as many problems still exist. For instance, the government should examine and study on public transportation mechanism of KKIA Terminal 1 as there will be 6-9 million passengers a year travelling via that terminal in future.