KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — MCA and Gerakan leaders slammed today the Penang state government for paying allegedly exorbitant consultancy fees for reports on roads.
MCA Penang State Youth chief Datuk Michael Lee Beng Seng highlighted the Barisan Nasional (BN) Strategic Communications team’s claim that the DAP state government had overpaid by RM136 million for reports on three roads totaling 20km in length, noting that this sum exceeded the RM100 million spent on flood mitigation projects in the state between 2008 and 2016.
“Penang MCA Youth is shocked that the Penang government has got its priorities so very wrong that the well-being and safety of the rakyat of Penang is put into second place behind the interests of consultants and contractors,” Lee said in a statement.
Gerakan claimed that consultancy fees of RM120.4 million were charged for a 10.5km road from Tanjung Bungah to Teluk Bahang.
“Affordable housing, flash floods and landslides are issues the Penangites are concerned [with]. The state government should ensure that basic infrastructure should be the key in ensuring sustainable development in the state.
“It is better for the funds allocated for consultants to be used on constructing affordable homes as well as a better flood mitigation system,” Gerakan vice-president Datuk Dr Dominic Lau said in a statement.
BN strategic communications director Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan pledged yesterday to report the Penang state government to anti-graft authorities unless it justified within a week the allegedly abnormal consultation fees for its transport masterplan.
He alleged that the RM177 million paid by the state government was 400 per cent higher than the Board of Engineers' gazetted scale of fees, which was RM41 million for the size and complexity of the project. The fees are for the state's proposed undersea tunnel and three paired roads that are set to cost RM6.3 billion.
