cakap cakap...George Kent a done deal!

It is not enough to go to the polls every five years. It is not enough for us to be told that Malaysia is a vibrant democracy when it is not. We already know about the growing culture of violence imposed by PDRM, with or without the tacit approval of this BN government, upon the Rakyat of this nation. We already know about the suppression of media freedom and the abuse of public office for personal gain. This is all part and parcel of what half a century of what this UMNO led Government has imposed upon us but all this will still not stop us from questioning what is our right to question.  

What we need to question is the entrenched culture of impunity that our leaders now practised in their decision making on matters that affect our national interest without regard for any other interest but their own! We must hold politicians accountable for what they do while in office.

This award of the Ampang Line Extension Project to George Kent is another instance when we need to hold Najib accountable for the following decision made by Prasarana:

“Prasarana, the project and asset owner for the LRT Line Extension Project, would like to officially announce that the contract for Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Testing and Commissioning of System Works for the Ampang Line Extension Project is awarded to George Kent – Lion Pacific JV,”

Was the award of the system works contract on the Ampang Line Light Rail Transit extension project to George Kent ever in doubt? When common sense dictate that by any criteria you would care to use that George Kent should not have been awarded this contract, they still do manage to secure it.

We can overlook the close ties Najib has with George Kent’s bosses.

We can overlook the recent PKR expose that alleged that the George Kent-Lion Pacific JV was unable to manage the project from both the technical and financial standpoint.

What we cannot overlook is the damming September 2011 technical evaluation by the engineering consultant company Halcrow that George Kent was unable to handle the project’s specification. Halcrow report states :

 “On questioning the tenderer at their presentation, it was apparent that not only was there lack of understanding or aptitude for the systems integration process, but their proposed integration consultant neither understood the requirements, integration or configuration issues, nor how to manage them”.

The report further notes: “In order to meet the required key performance index for this project, there is insufficient detail to provide any confidence that there is any real understanding of the requirements, nor a demonstration of how they would attempt to deliver and manage each stage of this highly complex project”.

Halcrow, in scoring the candidates, placed George Kent third from bottom at a score of 48.91 percent. The lowest score was 42.98 percent while the highest was 83.42 percent.

What we must not overlook is that while George Kent is a company well versed with water pipes it does not appear to have any Light Rail Transit-related experience!

What we cannot overlook is that to date the largest project undertaken by George Kent was worth less than RM40 million!

So how and why did they manage to secure this tender? Did the personal financial gains to Najib out gunned the political fallout and adverse ramification of such an award?

This is what you can call the arrogance of power! Najib thinks he can make these politicised decisions without being held accountable for his actions and without incurring our anger and our disgust at his actions. He does not have unlimited power. He holds public office at our pleasure with our consent. He must be made to not forget that!