Both the federal and Terengganu state government have refused to explain why “at least RM100 million” will be spent to repair the RM34 million Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin stadium roof.
Kuala Terengganu MP Raja Bahrin Shah noted today that both governments had been silent about how the RM100 million would be broken down, raising a suspicion that public funds were being abused amid calls for the rakyat to tighten their belts.
“Why is it when the cost of the original roof was only RM34 million, the repair will cost at least RM100 million?” the PAS lawmaker asked during a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.
“Does this include costs to replace electrical items, lights, generators and other stolen equipment, as well as costs to fix the neglected football field and running track?”He said he raised the question with the Terengganu state government on Feb 12, but had still not received an answer.
A similar question raised in Parliament on March 13 elicited the short response that “the project was under the Terengganu state government”.
The Works Ministry’s non-answer went against its role as head of the investigation committee tasked to probe the stadium’s 2009 collapse, said Raja Bahrin.
“Here we can see that there is no transparency or accountability in the government’s continued spendthrift ways,”he said.
Raja Bahrin pointed out that since the state government had said RM100 million was the minimum repair cost, there was no stopping it from inflating the figure further to RM150 million or even RM200 million.
“It appears that while the government is making a call for the people to spend less, and the opposition telling the government to manage funds wisely,
“the government is still making unwise financial decisions and approving construction projects that lead to wastage,” he said.
The roof of the RM292 million sports complex collapsed in 2009, less than a year after it had been handed over to the state for the hosting of the Malaysia Games (Sukma).
The investigation committee said the collapse was due to serious engineering flaws, shoddy workmanship, use of inferior material and the inexperience of the key project management team.-FMT
