KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 ― Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM) vice-president Datuk Huan Cheng Guan urged the authorities today to investigate the Penang government for graft, claiming the administration spent five times the permitted standard for two studies on the tunnel project.
According to Huan, the gazetted rate limit for consultancy work on projects above RM1 billion is between 2.28 per cent and 2.54 per cent the total cost.
He claimed, however, that the RM208.8 million spent for the feasibility and detailed design reports on three paired roads for the tunnel project is between 8 and 11 per cent of the estimated construction cost, which is somewhere between RM1.85 billion and RM2 billion.
“The information given by the Penang Exco in his press statement is a strong indication that the Penang government may have paid up to five times higher for the reports for the three roads than the gazetted scale of fees,” Huan said in a statement today, referring to state executive councillor Lim Hock Seng who revealed the cost for the studies recently.
“Therefore, I am making these reports to request the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) and the PDRM (Royal Malaysian Police) Commercial Crimes Department to investigate if there is any corruption or elements of wrongdoing in the award of these reports,” he added.
Penang’s plan to build the RM6.34 billion undersea tunnel and three paired roads have been heavily criticised by non-governmental organisations and Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders, citing various reasons from costs to environmental impact.
The third link is touted to be a key feature of the state’s ambitious RM27 billion Penang Transport Master Plan to resolve traffic congestion woes through a comprehensive public transport system along with construction of highways and major roads.
The 7.2km undersea tunnel linking the island state to the mainland was awarded in 2013 to Consortium Zenith-BUCG, a joint-venture between Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd and China Railway Construction Co Ltd, together with Beijing Urban Construction Group, Sri Tinggi Sdn Bhd and Juteras Sdn Bhd.
