In an unacceptable and shocking about turn, the Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water issued a statement last Friday announcing that the Federal Government will not invoke the Water Services Industry Act (2006) (WSIA) to compulsorily acquire the privatised water concession in Selangor.
The Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili said “right now, we are still facilitating without invoking (WSIA) if possible … but the (water) situation is getting bad.” He added that he still had a “glimmer of hope” that the state and concessionaires would reach a deal without the need for invoking WSIA.
The above statements contradicted the joint statement issued by the Minister with the Selangor Menteri Besar on Tuesday afternoon after the water concessionaires – Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd, Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (SYABAS) and Syarikat Pengeluar Air Selangor Holdings (SPLASH) – rejected the RM9.65 bilion buyout offer made by the state government.
Earlier, Dr Maximus Ongkili had agreed that “in line with the terms of the MOU, the Federal Government through the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) shall now pursue the exercise of its rights and powers under the Water Services Industry Act 2006 (WSIA)… This includes invoking Section 114 of WSIA in order to address issues of national interest to ensure security, sustainability and viability of the water supply industry in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.”
The latest about turn, crafted in vague and ambiguous language is clearly contradicted not only of the Tuesday joint statement, but is also a betrayal of the spirit of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the state and federal government on 26th February 2014.
The Federal Government had promised to cajole the concessionaires into accepting final offer made by the Selangor state by 10th March 2014, failing which the former was to execute its powers under the WSIA to conduct compulsory acquisition of the water companies.
In return, the Selangor state government would concede and grant the necessary approvals for the construction of Langat 2 water treatment plant to the Federal Government.
Hence despite the privatised water companies having already rejected the offers made by the Selangor government, the Minister continues to stall over the invoking WSIA, hoping for a deal to be struck on a “willing buyer, willing seller” basis between the companies and state.
We would like to remind the Minister that Selangor has already made the final offer. The offer has been rejected by these companies. The Federal Government has failed to do their part to persuade them to accept the offer. The state government will not be increasing the value of the offer. Hence the deal is dead, there is no more negotiations. 5 years of fruitless negotiations with these greedy privatised concessionaires is enough time wasted.
Dr Maximus Ongkili must stop pretending to wait for “a glimmer of hope”. Such hopes have vanished. The water crisis in Selangor must be resolved immediately and the rakyat must not wait a day longer. We must have no sympathies for these water companies who have already made hundreds of millions of ringgit in profits, and yet persist to reject a more-than-fair buyout offer by the state government.
The about turn however, did not come as a surprise as we never had much confidence that the Barisan Nasional Ministers will have the back bone to stand up to the greedy water concessionaires.
Given the above, we will call upon the Selangor state government, led by its Executive Council and the state assembly to withold all remaining necessary approvals for the Langat 2 project to proceed. The is no legal necessity for the state to fulfil its obligations in the MOU, when the Federal Government has failed to even demonstrate their commitment.