Is Works Minster Zin lying about the toll agreements?

Somebody is really not telling the truth about the toll agreements. The new works Minister said to day that the government cannot declassify the agreements but this contradicts what was said last year..  Please read what Zin said, then my comments in red:

THE Government is not allowed to declassify highway concession agreements due to a confidentiality clause in the contracts, says Works Minister Datuk Mohd Zin Mohamed.(Damn, if the government cannot declassify a document, then who can?)

He said before the Government did this, it would have to first get the consent from the parties involved. (Well Zin, Litrak on Friday 16th March 2007 agreed to declassifying its toll agreement. Here is the news as taken from the STAR:

Friday March 16, 2007
Concessionaire Litrak agrees to go public with toll agreement

KOTA KINABALU: Litrak, the toll concessionaire for Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP), has agreed to make public its toll agreement with the Government.

However, the Cabinet has yet to give the green light for the documents to be made public. 

“If the Government reveals the concession agreements without the companies’ consent, the concessionaires can take action against the Government for failing to abide by the ‘confidentiality’ provision in the agreements.(Again, LITRAk has consented, so whats the problem? PLUS is a GLC -government linked company… the government is the major Shareholder – you mean you cant get PLUS to agree?)

“The government’s credibility and image will also be questioned and it could affect investors’ confidence,” he said in a written reply to Teo Nie Ching (DAP-Serdang).(ZIN, you have just destroyed the governments credibility by contradicting what has already been published in the papers!)

Mohd Zin said the Government would not reveal the details of highway concession deals for fear certain parties would manipulate these to create unease, and affect public order and the country’s economy.(If everything was above BOARD the issue of fear should not arise. Obviously “Something is rotten in Denmark”) 

Teo had asked whether the highway concession contracts would be declassified from the Official Secrets Act 1971. She also asked for the minister to state the reasons why, if the Government could not do so.

Mohd Zin also said that the Government would have to consider the implications of de-classifying the documents, so that it would not affect national security or public interest.(Zin, how can a toll concession agreement, which in essences is a straight forward commercial agreement for BOT financing be a threat to national security?)

“The view is based on the case of the Takong Tabiri Government of Sarawak and 3 ORS (1995) 1 CLJ 403, where the court had stated that Act 88 was meant to prevent any leakage of official secret documents without consent.(AGAIN, LITRAK have consented, so start with the LITRAK agreement!)

“The main aim of the Act is to protect official secret documents or information which, if revealed, would be detrimental to national security or public interest,” he said. (That was not the point of this parliamentary question)

 

I have been following this Toll saga quite closely so if you wish to read the whole chronology - click here. If you wish to know why they wont declassify, then read here please.

SAMY Hides behind OSA on toll agreements!

Well, the expected finally happened. Samy has said he can’t make public the toll concession agreement, see today’s Star. By the way, thank you to Theresa Kok for pushing so hard in Parliament on this issue.

Samy: Highway pact won’t be made public

THE Government has decided that it is not appropriate for all highway concessionaire agreements to be made public.

In January this year, Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said the agreement between the Government and highway concessionaires would not be revealed as the documents were confidential.

A month later, however, he announced that the Prime Minister had agreed in principle to make the documents public.

“We have studied the matter in detail and have decided that it is not appropriate to reveal all signed concessionaire agreements to the public,” said Samy Vellu in a written reply to Lim Kit Siang (DAP – Ipoh Timur) yesterday.

Samy Vellu said all concessionaire agreements were part of the Government’s secret documents and came under the Official Secrets Act.

“These documents contain a confidentiality clause whereby an agreement has to be first obtained from a concessionaire company before the agreement can be made public,” he said.

Let’s see what was said in earlier press releases on the matter:

Taken from my earlier posts, here

On obtaining permission from the concessionaire:

Samy Vellu is back in the paper on Litrak making the concessionaire agreements public. Read what was said in the Star here.

See what Samy says:

“I have talked to Litrak; they have agreed to make it public; now we have to get approval from the Cabinet,” he said after a briefing from Sabah Infrastructure Minister Datuk Raymond Tan.

On the Governments stand in making the agreements public:

Now,lets go back to an earlier statement made by Samy, on making public the toll agreements here.
Allow me to quote from the article:

“I had mentioned it in the Cabinet on Feb 7 and the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) asked me to submit the working paper.

“Now I have already got the approval (to make the agreements public),” he told reporters at the MCA Chinese New Year Open House at Wisma MCA here on Sunday.

Samy even went on further to say:

Samy Vellu said he had consulted the attorney general on the matter and was now writing to the highway concession companies.

This was because there was a clause stating that the consent of the concessionaires was required before publicising the documents.

“Once this is done and the Cabinet approves it, everybody can come and see it. I have the agreements in my office,” Samy Vellu added.

Asked when he expected the agreements could be made public, Samy Vellu said :”Wait for the Cabinet to approve it.”

SAMY, no need to show all toll agreements, just show the : Litrak / LDP agreement as GAMUDA has said they are quite happy to share it. Why pick on Litrak, well see what they announced soon after the toll increases:

From The Star, Starbiz, Monday 30th April 2007, page B3, Between the Lines, by CS Tan:

Motorists will get used to higher toll rates. Lingkaran Trans Kota Holdings Bhd (Litrak), for instance, found its traffic volume was weak in the first two months this year, after a scheduled 60% toll hike from RM1.00 to RM1.60 in the beginning of the year. It is understood traffic volume has stabilised, with a marginal growth in March and April.

With that toll increase, Litrak would have free cashflow of about RM140mil a year, and sources said, a capital repayment of about 50 sen a share could soon be offered to shareholders.

To see other related posts I have on Samy, go to categories and click on Tolls & Samy Vellu.

Islam Hadhari – How well do we score?

How would you score our implementation of Islam Hadhari?

A – very good

C – needs improvement

F – fail

The ScoreCard is based on the 10 fundamental principles as follows:

• Faith and piety in Allah
• Just and trustworthy government
• Freedom and independence to the people
• Mastery of knowledge
• Balanced and comprehensive economic development
• Good quality of life for all
• Protection of the rights of minority groups and women
• Cultural and moral integrity
• Protection of the environment
• A strong defence policy

Overall Score:

Litarak, Capital Repayment, 50sen / share…

From The Star, Starbiz, Monday 30th April 2007, page B3, Between the Lines, by CS Tan:

Motorists will get used to higher toll rates. Lingkaran Trans Kota Holdings Bhd (Litrak), for instance, found its traffic volume was weak in the first two months this year, after a scheduled 60% toll hike from RM1.00 to RM1.60 in the beginning of the year. It is understood traffic volume has stabilised, with a marginal growth in March and April.

With that toll increase, Litrak would have free cashflow of about RM140mil a year, and sources said, a capital repayment of about 50 sen a share could soon be offered to shareholders.

So it looks like SAMY is indeed working for the shareholders.. especially since the rakyaat have been burdened with the increase in toll and the shareholders about to reap a capital repayment….

Works Minister: Pipe installation at Immigration HQ flawed from the start

Here we go again with Samy…… About the pipe that burst in the immigration department office in Putrajaya:

KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Works Department (PWD) has found the contractor assigned to build the Putrajaya Immigration headquarters to have failed to install pipes according to specifications, leading to the burst pipe incident recently.

Works Minister Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu said from the initial stage, installation of the pipes was flawed.

“The contractor was responsible for carrying out all construction work and pipe installations. From the beginning, the pipes were fixed without being coated with couplings and they were not anchored to the wall,”

So Mr Samy, can you tell us:
a. who was awarded the project to build the building?
b: who was the architect, whose job is to ensure things are built to plan?

When something fails, lets not blame the symptoms, lets get to the root cause. In construction, there is a system of accountability in place to ensure check and balances to ensure everything is build to specification. So lets get down to the root cause of “who let the contractor get away with such shoddy work?”

The minister was responding to the Immigration Department director-general Datuk Abdul Wahid Don’s request for scheduled maintenance and inspections to be carried out to prevent flooding from occurring again.

Samy Vellu said the PWD would prepare a report on the condition of the faulty pipes, rectification measures and repair costs for the Cabinet.

“The department will check the whole building and determine how to fix the pipes,” he added.

So once again taxpayers money is going to be spent because of this governments system of no accountability, no transparency!

Sammy Vellu and his old boss, Mahathir

General Musharaf, Samy Vellu, Mahathir and Gloria
Arroyo are sitting in a train. The train suddenly goes thru a tunnel and it
gets completely dark.

Suddenly there is a kissing sound and then a slap!
The train comes out of the tunnel. Arroyo and Musharraf are sitting there
looking perplexed.   Samy Vellu is bent over holding his face, which is
red from an apparent  slap.   All of them remain diplomatic and nobody says
anything.
Musharraf is thinking:  “These Malaysians are all crazy after
Arroyo. Samy must have tried to kiss her in the tunnel. Very proper that she
slapped him.”

Arroyo is thinking: “Samy must have moved to kiss
me, and kissed Musharraf instead and got slapped.”

Samy is thinking: “Damn it, Musharaf must have
tried to kiss Arroyo, she thought it was me and slapped me.”
Mahathir is simply thinking: “If this train goes
through another tunnel, I could make another kissing sound and slap Samy again.”

More thoughts on Toll Cost

I hope Teresa Kok will continue to pursue the toll matter…..

What I would like to know is, if the figures quoted is only what has been collected from the public or does it also include the subsidy from the government, which is reported to be Rm479.7 mil over the last 6 years.

Mathematically RM479.7 mil / 6 years = 79.95 million per year

Samy Vellu did speak of the LDP increase and says although toll is going up by 60sen, the government still has to subsidies 50 sen. which works out to be:

400,000 toll-able trips per day x 50 sen x 30 days per month x 12 months per year = RM72 million in subsidy per year. Does that mean the bulk of the subsidy is going to LDP?

Remember, this is what The Star quoted Samy Vellu saying

Works Minister Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu said, for example, the Government was paying 50 sen for every passenger car passing through the Damansara-Puchong Expressway (LDP) toll plaza.

“Although the toll will be increased by 60 sen from Jan 1 next year, the Government will still be subsidising 50 sen,” he told a press conference at his office here yesterday.

He also announced the toll increase for the Cheras-Kajang (or Grand Saga) Highway, Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway, Guthrie Corridor Expressway and Kesas (or Shah Alam) Expressway during the press conference.

Samy Vellu said the Government had paid RM479.7mil in toll subsidy in the past six years.

Our tolled highways cost us RM16.4 million per km!

Thank you Teresa Kok for getting an answer here on how much the toll operators have collected.

In a written reply on Tuesday to a question by Teresa Kok (DAP-Seputeh), Samy Vellu said the companies had collected RM23.65bil without stating the amount of bank loans obtained by the firms nor the interest rates.

I took some info from Lembaga Lebuh Raya Malaysia as follows:
Plus – 848 KM
KL – Karak – 60 km
Penang Bridge – 13.5 km
Shah Alam Express Way 34.5km
Kulim – Butterworth – 17.5 km
Elite – 48KM
Seremban – PD – 23km
Linkedua – 46km
SgBesi Hwy – 16km
Cheras – Kajang – 11.7km
LDP 1 – 23km
LDP 2 – 17km
Ampang Elevated – 7.4km
Sprint – 26km
NPE – 19.6 km
Silk – 37km
Lebuhraya Pantai Timur – 169 km
CGE Guthrie – 25km

The total length of our tolled highways are 1442.2 km. On the basis of Rm23.65 billion, our cost per km is : RM23,650,000,000 / 1442.2 km = RM16,398,557.76 per km.

Toll collection is reported at RM41 million per month or RM 1/2 billion a year.

By the way the reported “kos pembinaan” is 18.93 bilion or RM 13.125 million per km. Compare this to India’s cost below:

To give a relative feel for this, let me quote highway construction cost:

Foreign Firms Line up for National Highway Contracts

By Shalini Singh
Times News Network
May 17, 2003

NEW DELHI: About 16 large overseas builders are jostling for a piece of the Rs 12,000 crore-worth of contracts to build and improve 3,003 km of national highways. About 23 short-listed BoT projects to four-lane national highways have attracted 115-odd bids, many from Malaysia and Singapore.

The overseas bidders include IJM Bhd, Gamuda Bhd, Meinhardt, Tiong Seng Bhd, GMR, Dutcell, Hohup Bhd, United Engineers Bhd, Dhaya Maju Bhd, Maitas Bhd, RBM Bhd, SNC Bhd, Ose Bhd, HCM Bhd, RBH Bhd and Delomite.

The local list includes IL&FS (13 bids), Srei (7), Gammon (5), Gyatri Construction (7), HCC (5), L&T (5), Ircon (3), Unitech (2), IDFC (2), DS Construction (2), Punj Lloyd (2), Nagarjuna Construction (2), and Essar, Adani and Som Dutt with one bid each.

The renewed interest may be attributed not just to the value of the contracts Rs 9,009-12,012 crore but also to a more sensible bidding process that allows companies to pitch for entire projects, from feasibility studies to construction, operation and maintenance. Earlier, tenders for each aspect of a project were awarded separately, resulting in poor bidder turnouts.

The last date for submission of applications for empanelment was April 18, with a 15-day extension. The shortlisted candidates are likely to be announced tomorrow.

These 3,003-odd km of projects form part of the 10,000 km national highways that the ministry of road transport & highways (MORT&H) is taking up to four-lane over the next 4-5 years.

They are not included in the 13,000 km of national highways that classify as NHDP projects. The base construction cost for most of the sections for the four-laning of the 3,000 km which is to be awarded in this fiscal is Rs 3-4 crore per km, while the contract length is likely to be 50-100 km.

The work includes rehabilitating and upgrading the existing 2-lane section to a 4-lane divided carriageway, rehabilitating existing pavements, construction of major and minor bridges, culverts, road intersections, interchanges and drains.

Ind Rupee = 3 crore = RM 2,398,505.13, of course this doesn’t include maintenance and service, but surely it cant be RM16.4 mil per km….

For full details, please visit Teresa Kok’s site.

Does SAMY speak with a twisted tounge?

Samy Vellu is back in the paper on Litrak making the concessionaire agreements public. Read what was said in the Star here.

See what Samy says:

“I have talked to Litrak; they have agreed to make it public; now we have to get approval from the Cabinet,” he said after a briefing from Sabah Infrastructure Minister Datuk Raymond Tan.

Now,lets go back to an earlier statement made by Samy, on making public the toll agreements here.
Allow me to quote from the article:

“I had mentioned it in the Cabinet on Feb 7 and the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) asked me to submit the working paper.

“Now I have already got the approval (to make the agreements public),” he told reporters at the MCA Chinese New Year Open House at Wisma MCA here on Sunday.

Isn’t this such a blatant contradiction, to the point one could say he was lying?

Then again, he did contradict himself in the earlier statement. Let me quote what he said after that:

Samy Vellu said he had consulted the attorney general on the matter and was now writing to the highway concession companies.

This was because there was a clause stating that the consent of the concessionaires was required before publicising the documents.

“Once this is done and the Cabinet approves it, everybody can come and see it. I have the agreements in my office,” Samy Vellu added.

Asked when he expected the agreements could be made public, Samy Vellu said :”Wait for the Cabinet to approve it.”

So I guess its all SAM speak….

Guide to political survival – mastering “SAM Speak”

This is a guide to help all aspiring politicians to understand the secret of how to have a long and prosperous political career.

Mastering “Sam Speak”

“SAM Speak” is an acronym for “Saya, Anda, Mereka,” – In English it means :
Saya: I or Me
Anda: You
Mereka: Them

The way to use SAM Speak is simple:

Use SAYA to take credit for anything that can be taken credit for.

Use ANDA to remind people who you are serving

Use MEREKA to pass the buck to the CABINET or assign blame to any third party like civil service, contractors etc…

To practice, please see how a pro uses it

Notice how the MASTER says:

“I had mentioned it in the Cabinet on Feb 7 and the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) asked me to submit the working paper.

…Using SAYA and taking all the credit.

“Now I have already got the approval(to make the agreements public),” …

…Using SAYA and taking all the credit

Samy Vellu said he had consulted the attorney general on the matter and was now writing to the highway concession companies.

…Using Mereka to place potential blame

Once this is done and the Cabinet approves it, everybody can come and see it. I have the agreements in my office,” Samy Vellu added.

..Using ANDA to show YOU who he works so hard for.

Asked when he expected the agreements could be made public, Samy Vellu said :”Wait for the Cabinet to approve it.”

…Using MEREKA and passing the buck

See the clever play of Saya, Anda and Mereka being used…..
Master SAM Speak and you will survive.