KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 2 — Malaysia’s national satellite imagery programme could cost taxpayers as much as RM1 billion if all supporting and preceding initiatives are accounted for, two Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers alleged today.

DAP’s Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim insisted the true cost of the government’s space mapping programme may not only be RM142 million and RM271.9 million as was officially listed for the RazakSat-1 programme and its successor, RazakSat-2, as these did not include other ancillary services that laid the groundwork for the current project’s execution.

“We believe RM142 million and RM271.9 million is not the whole story. We believe the total cost of the national ambition to send out satellites so we can take photographs from the sky will eventually cost us RM1 billion or even more,” he told reporters in the Parliament lobby.

“The cost should include all the supporting facilities, staff, the sending of such as TiungSat-1, TiungSat-2, CubeSat, InnoSat as well as the launching fees and operation cost,” he also said in a statement, saying that the total cost may then hit RM1 billion.

In a joint press statement with party colleague Julian Tan, Sim wrote that Putrajaya’s RazakSat initiative was a continuation of the earlier TiungSat programme aimed at sending out satellites to take photographs from space.

He insisted that the government should therefore calculate the cost of that goal by also including the cost of past satellites.

Last week, the DAP duo also questioned the increase in cost for the RazakSat-2 project even when it remained in the preparation phase.

“The project has not been started but yet the cost has increased 35 per cent or RM72 million,” Sim repeated today.

Sim also held up the Auditor-General’s Report in 2011 that revealed that defects with the RazakSat-1 satellite to bolster his suspicions over the successor programme.

“The main problem is since 2011, the Auditor-General has given warning on the failure of RazakSat-1. We do not see government being serious to ensure that Razak-Sat 2 will not fail in the same way,” he said.

He later pressed the government to be transparent over its plans for sending out satellites.

“First, give us the total cost. Secondly, give us clear strategy to ensure that Razak-Sat 2 will not fail like Razak-Sat 1,” he said.

Tan, the Stampin MP who was also present at the media conference, questioned why the government was spending on “technological partners” when it already had “in-house” experts.

He pointed out that the government had trained a total of 166 engineers and scientists for the RazakSat-1 programme, citing the former Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Dr Maximus Ongkili as stating this in 2011.

“Why are we spending so much money without actually growing our own capacity? If we already have such home-grown capacity as claimed by the government, why then are we spending more money to engage so-called ‘technological partners’ to do almost everything in this programme?” he asked.

Tan referred to a parliamentary reply by the Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Dr Abu Bakar Mohamad Diah to Sim on September 26.

Abu Bakar had in the reply said that the government-owned Astronautic Technological Sdn Bhd (ATSB) will be the official contractor for RazakSat-2, while its “technological partners will be in charge of the design, manufacturing, testing, launching and operation”.

In the same parliamentary reply to Sim, Abu Bakar reportedly said RazakSat-2, which was announced in 2011, will be launched in 2016 instead of the initial 2015 date.

According to the National Audit Department, RazakSat-1 became defective in 2010 or one year into its three-year lifespan. This caused it to take mapping images that were inaccurate by as much as 37km and rendering the 1,328 satellite photographs taken to be useless for their intended purposes.