KUCHING, Nov 23 — The Sarawak International Medical Centre (SIMC) in Kota Samarahan near here has failed to meet its objective as a leading integrated specialty and subspecialties medical centre in South East Asia.
The centre is a project of the state government through the Sarawak Specialist Hospital and Medical Centre (SSHMC), a subsidiary of the SSHMC Management and Holdings Sdn Bhd that is wholly owned by the State Financial Secretary Incorporated (SFS Inc).
Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang in his latest report said an audit was done on the project from January to March this year.
“It is found that the overall performance of the SFS Inc. in the management of the state government investment as unsatisfactory and its objective has not been achieved,” he said.
The state government’s long-term vision is to make it a medical centre and tertiary hospital that provides medical services to residents of Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei and Kalimantan as well as a regional medical hub in South East Asia.
A sum of RM50.50 million was injected to finance its construction.
The turnkey contract was offered to a Consortium consisting of Sesco Engineering Sdn Bhd (SE) and Vamed Engineering GmbH and Co KG (VAMED) on Dec 20, 2002 with a total contract value of RM374.12 million.
But with additional specialist medical and IT equipment (€36.30 million), water and electricity installation (RM16.02 million) and RM18.45 million in consultation fee the total development cost amounted to more.
The contract period was for 36 months starting from July 15, 2003 to July 14, 2006.
In 2005, the cost was revised to RM453.24million taking into account the cost of expected structural changes, higher cost of euro and other costs.
Ambrin said the delay in completion had pushed the development cost to RM534.38 million while its Settlement Agreement too did not protect the interest of the government and there was weakness in asset management by SSHMC.
He recommended that both SFS Inc. and SSHMC Board of Directors “review and reassess the management and activities of SSHMC to determine the direction of the company in order to get a return on investment.” “The SFS Inc. should scrutinise and monitor agreements prepared and signed by its subsidiary with other parties in order to protect the government’s interest.
“SSHMC too should act to identify medical and non-medical equipment that are not used or obsolete so that further action can be taken as soon as possible and also to give registration number to assets presently used by the tenants to facilitate their identification and tracking,” he said. — Bernama
