“ I
am writing to ask Datuk Seri for a full list of the failed Project
Management Consultants (PMC) and non-PMC infrastructure development
projects under the Eighth Malaysia Plan since 2000 in accordance with the
principles of accountability, transparency and good governance.
“As
the Dewan Rakyat is currently meeting and debating the 2005 Budget, I
should be asking this question in Parliament, but the parliamentary
Standing Orders are so archaic, reactionary and out-of-tune with the chief
parliamentary objective to effectively hold the government to account
that there is no way this could be done.
“Although the present budget meeting is for 41 days from 1st
September to 14th December 2004, MPs must submit their
questions for answer by Ministers by before August 13, rendering
Parliament irrelevant like a museum piece unable to address topical and
developing burning issues of the country such as the failed PMC and non-PMC
government infrastructure projects, as the PMC scandal appeared on the
public radar screen only in the past two weeks.
“At
the Roundtable Discussion of Presidents and Chief Executives in the
Construction Industry in Kuala Lumpur on June 23, 2003, you said that in
2002, the value of projects implemented by the Government was about RM23.5
billion, with the PWD handling RM7 billion worth, or 30 per cent of the
projects, while the balance of RM16.5 billion were given out to PMCs.
From this amount, only 30% of the projects managed by the PMCs were
completed within schedule.
“These astronomical figures underlines the urgency that Parliament should
be able to immediately address and debate this issue to hold the
government effectively to account, if Parliament is to be able to play its
role as the custodian of the taxpayers’ interests.
“PMC internationally
represents a new profession to ensure that development projects are
completed faster, within budget or cheaper and of high quality but in
Malaysia it has become a byword for a new scam, a new form of cheating
public funds, with projects ending up with higher cost, taking longer
time and with inferior quality.
“This is another added
reason why this most shameful distortion of the meaning of PMC in
Malaysia should be ventilated and corrected in Parliament.
“However, basic
information and data are needed, and this is why I am writing to you for
the two separate listsof failed PMC and non-PMC government infrastructure
development projects under the Eighth Malaysia Plan since 2000..
“It will be ,most
appreciated if this information could be provided by next week, which
will enable Parliament to focus on this single biggest burning issue in
the country at the current meeting. It will be a crying shame and
terrible indictment of the failure and irrelevance of Parliament if it
is unable or unwilling to address and debate the scandal of the PMC and
non-PMC government infrastructure development projects before it adjourns
on December 14.”
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