The Sarawak State Government should immediately stop the direct award of the Coastal Road Project and the Second Trunk Road Project without first calling for open tender for the projects.
The Coastal Road Project is estimated to cost RM5 billion and the Second Trunk Road Project is estimated to cost RM6 billion. Both projects will be funded by the State Government.
For the Coastal Road Project, it is from Sebuyau to Betong, covering a distance of 92 km, including a few bridges. For a project of 92 km road building or expansion, even with the construction of a number of bridges, RM5 billion is still extremely expensive. It is approximately RM52 million per km !
It is shocking that for projects of such magnitude, the Sarawak State Government did not call for open tender and is now in the process of awarding them to two different companies.
James Masing, as the Minister of Infrastructure Development and Transportation (MIDT), must be accountable to Sarawakians why there is no open tender called for in respect of these two huge projects.
James Masing should learn the lesson from the dire state of financial affairs of the Federal Government. It is such rampant practice of direct award of mega projects which has resulted in the draining of our federal coffer that we are now in debt of more than RM1 trillion.
Our State’s reserve fund is only RM30 billion. The Chief Minister is now contemplating the construction of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) train with an estimated costs of RM11 billion. James Masing is now embarking on these 2 projects with an estimated costs of RM10 billion.
At the rate this is going, very soon, within 5 years, our State reserves will be totally depleted.
We DAP Sarawak thus call upon James Masing
- to stop the award of the said 2 projects to the 2 intended contractors of James Masing’s choice;
- to break the contract into smaller packages so that more contractors can be allowed to be involved; and
- to call for open tenders over all the packages so that the people get the value for money from the said projects.