By DAP Sabah Chairman-cum-MP for Kota Kinabalu Jimmy Wong Sze Phin and DAP Sabah Deputy Chairman-cum-MP for Sandakan Stephen Wong Tien Fatt
We are in total agreement with Member of Parliament for Kalabakan, Datuk Abdul Ghapur Salleh, when he objected to the award of the construction of the Pan Borneo Highway to companies from Peninsular Malaysia in his parliamentary speech yesterday. We, like him, strongly object to the awarding of these contracts to crony companies especially if they are awarded via direct negotiation and not via open tender.
According to various newspaper reports, it seems that UEM-MMC are the front runners to win the Sabah portion of the Pan Borneo Highway contract. The early assessment study was even done way back in 2011 and completed in 2013. This kind of direct negotiation is totally unacceptable and inconsistent with the open tender process called for under the Government Transformation Program (GTP). All the details for this construction project including costs and payments for delays must be made public.
If these reports are true, we call on the Prime Minister and his cabinet to immediately put a stop to the signing of such a contract. Instead, we request the Prime Minister to call for an open tender for the Sabah portion of the Pan Borneo Highway and to include the requirement that Sabah based companies must be part of any consortium which is bidding for the Sabah portion of this highway.
We do not want Sabah companies to pick up scraps from the table by being sub-contractors to Peninsular Malaysian companies who will reap most of the profits from the contract.
In addition, we also strongly object to the awarding of the concessionaire to operate the Pan Borneo Highway which will include the payment of tolls. As we have seen in Peninsular Malaysia, the toll concessionaires such as UEM-PLUS have raked in billions of ringgit of profits in toll payments long after they have recouped the construction costs. We do not want Sabahans to suffer the same fate by paying for tolls all their lives especially since Sabah remains the poorest state in Malaysia.
We do not want Sabahans to suffer ‘like fools’ by firstly, allowing a Peninsular Malaysia based consortium to enjoy most if not all of the profits from the construction of the Pan Borneo Highway, and secondly, by allowing toll charges to be imposed on poor Sabahans so that a Peninsular Malaysia based toll concessionaire can enjoy exorbitant profits from the people of Sabah.
