The Transport Ministry is to go ahead with the purchase of the 38 units of the six coach Electric Multiple Units (EMU) despite an ongoing probe by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on the RM1.89 billion contract.

In a written reply to Kuala Selangor PAS parliamentarian Dzulkefly Ahmad , the ministry said it has awarded the Letter of Award (LOA) to CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co Ltd of China on May 19 prior to the investigations by MACC.

bagan pinang kong chor har 051009.jpg "Therefore, an agreement exists and was signed on July 23. The allegations are being investigated by MACC till today, (and) the ministry has not received any report on it," said Transport Minister Kong Cho Ha ( left ).

Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had recommended a probe into KTM Berhad's (KTMB) RM1.89 billion purchase of new electric trains in August following irregularities after its investigation.

PAC chairperson Azmi Khalid said that the committee had previously formally made a request to the MACC in a letter.

Dzulkefly said that the ministry's reasoning was "truly pathetic and it shouldn't be an excuse".

"We are reminded about the cancellation of the purchase of eight diesel multiple units (DMU) from Spain for the KTMB commuter service network despite the LOA and agreement being already signed.

"Numerous other examples could be cited that will make a mockery of the lame excuses given by the ministry to proceed with the procurement of the 38 EMU units from Zhuzhou," he said.

a kugan detention death funeral ummc to puchong 280109 kuala selangor mp dr dzulkefly ahmad He told reporters at Parliament today that there is a need to rush in securing the EMU to overcome the dismal state of public transport, but KTMB has yet to iron out with the suppliers on the entire scope of work in the agreement, particularly regarding the automatic train protection (ATP) system.

 Extra charges

"I was also informed that Zhuzhou is now asking for extra charges for that and worse still (they) want to extend the delivery period. So why the rush in the first place?" asked Dzulkefly ( left ).

The agreement also did not include the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) package, which will later burden the government to fork out more money, he said.

"I have insisted that the federal government should now negotiate and include in the price of EMU and MRO simultaneously during such procurement but this has fallen on deaf ears," he said.

Dissatisfied with the KTMB's agreement to buy the EMU trains at a cost of RM48 million each, using the direct negotiation method, Dzulkefly added that the ministry may end up paying about RM500 million extra for the whole deal if it goes ahead with the purchase.

The same company had earlier been awarded a tender to supply eight units of three-car EMUs at a cost of RM13.725 million per set.

NONE The three-car EMUs deal was cancelled in 2008 following new demands highlighted by the National Key Results Areas (NKRAs) for urban public transportation, particularly the need to increase passenger capacity rapidly.

Earlier on, former transport minister Ong Tee Keat ( right ) had defended the increase in cost, citing the difference in technical specifications.

Ong had said Dzulkefly's assessment "risk of comparing apples with oranges".

The opposition parliamentarian said the only difference between the EMUs from Spain and China were the installation of the close-circuit television (CCTV) and slide presentation panel for the 38 EMU six-car trains.

Dzulkefly concluded that after taking into account various anomalies like the foreign exchange rate and rising cost of materials, the train sets should only cost a maximum of RM35 million each.