The federal government is paying around five times the original cost by privatising the construction of six new Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) campuses in six different states, PKR said today.

 

Its director of strategy Rafizi Ramli ( right ) revealed that while the original cost for all the six campuses was only RM1.8 billion, the government will end up forking RM8.6 billion for all the six campuses after signing concession agreements to have private firms construct and manage the six campuses.

 

Rafizi claimed that the individuals behind the firms that obtained the concessions were all "Umno cronies" and promised to reveal more about the owners of these companies next week.

 

"Now the people can understand that Umno does not protect UiTM as they always claim to, but are rather using it by burdening UiTM financially to enrich their cronies," he alleged.

The six concession companies were appointed between 2009 and March this year for six campuses - Pasir Gudang (Johor), Jasin (Malacca), Seremban 2 (Negri Sembilan), Puncak Alam (Selangor), Tapah (Perak), and Kota Samarahan (Sarawak).

The original cost for each campus ranges between RM280 million to RM315 million, but the government has agreed to sign a 23-year concession agreement with each private company to pay an annual rental ranging from RM56 million to RM69 million a year.

This, Rafizi said, means that RM375 million will be borne by the government annually to pay these concessionaires.

“For the year 2014, the concession rental amounts to RM234 million, which is 11 percent of the entire allocation given to UiTM under the annual budget, which is RM 2.15 billion,” Rafizi added.