More on the curi duit in Penang

Contributed by Raja Petra
Friday, 29 February 2008
By Little Bird
The Keadilan folks are saying a lot about the Port Klang Free Trade Zone scandal. They say that Ling Liong Sik, Chan
Kong Choy, and their UMNO friends, have made a clean RM900 million from the land scam. To build the port they took
the land from the kampong people - Chinese, Malays, Indians and even the Mah Meris.
Now the overbuilt port is growing weeds. There is a useless hotel resort built within the port area. What type of idiot
builds a hotel resort inside a port area? Answer: smart idiots who want to make money from the construction contracts
and commissions and dont give a hoot about what happens after that.
Then there is the Second Penang Bridge. I do not know if it is an act of Providence or not but progress on the bridge has
been stopped. Meaning the construction of the bridge has not started. The idiots do not even know how to share the
spoils of their corrupt, illicit gains.
The 2nd Bridge was costed by the Chinese sub-contractor at RM2.5 billion. People in Gomen are asking why involve a
foreign subcontractor in the first place? We have developed expertise to design and build bridges and highways.
Malaysian companies are now building highways in India and elsewhere. The Chinese are also providing an RM2.7
billion loan to build the bridge.
But of course the Chinese insisted that their RM2.7 Billion loan comes with strings. They stipulate that the main sub-con
must be Chinese and the design consultants must also be Chinese. This is a fair request. After all they are paying for the
bridge. It's business.
But thirty years ago the 1st Penang Bridge was designed by a local engineer (by the name of Professor Lim Fung Kee?).
And why the need to borrow RM2.7 billion from the Chinese? Don't we have more than enough money. The Economic
Corridors involve RM1 trillion or more so what is a measly RM2.7 billion?
The answer to these silly questions lies in corruption and commissions. The Chinese sub-contractor bid the bridge at
RM2.5 billion to UEM, the UMNO company and main contractor. UEM then slapped on another cool RM1 billion and
billed the Gomen the RM3.5 billion for the whole deal.
This means that UMNO makes a cool RM1.0 billion from Encik Taxpayer (that's you kawan-kawan, and me, our kids,
their kids, etc) who will be paying toll on this 2nd bridge forever.
Then the cost of steel went up by over 30%. The Chinese contractor has an escalation clause on the pricing of the bridge
up to a certain date before the construction begins. This means their original costing at RM2.5 Billion would not work
anymore. They asked to increase the price.
But it would be suicidal (before the General Elections) for the Gomen to announce that even before the construction
started the cost of the 2nd Penang Bridge had already increased from RM3.5 billion to RM4.25 billion (here is the
arithmetic: RM2.5 billion original cost + 30% escalation + RM1 billion UMNO commission = RM4.25 billion, give or take a
hundred million).
Someone suggested, to avoid the cost inflation, the increased cost be absorbed into the RM1.0 billion UMNO
commission. This means the UMNO boys will get much less than RM1.0 billion commission. But the Kepala Batas and
Penang UMNO boys became greedy. They refused to budge.
End result: because they are unable to solve the cost escalation, negotiations and progress on the 2nd Penang Bridge
has stopped completely. Has anyone heard Badawi, Nor Mohd Yakob or anyone else crowing too loudly about the 2nd
Penang Bridge anymore?
But don't hold your breath. After the GE is over, if BN wins big, they will relaunch the 2nd Bridge at a new price of at least
RM4.25 Billion. The real cost will actually be higher.
Then the Patrick Badawi clan has bought hundreds or maybe thousands of acres of land around Batu Kawan, the
landing site of the bridge on the mainland.This is stale news.
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