At least 34 Bintulu-based sub-contractors registered with national oil company Petronas are considering joint legal action against the main contractor for non-payment of work.

They claim that Petara Sdn Bhd, a Petronas main contractor based in the peninsula, still owes them RM4.17 million collectively for sub-contract works already completed half a year ago.

Petara was appointed by the MNLG Revamp Rejuvenation (MRR) Project Team, part of the LNG Tiga development, as o­ne of its main contractors for the construction of the RM6 billion third liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Bintulu.

A spokesperson for the 34 sub-contractors told reporters o­n Monday that if Petara failed to pay what was still due to them, they could face bankruptcy.

3,000 workers affected

"MNLG has already paid out 90 percent of the contract sum to Petara Sdn Bhd. However, Petara has o­nly settled some 30 percent of the sub-contract sum to us," read the joint statement of the 34 companies at a meeting recently.

Fifteen of them were sub-contractors engaged by Petara while the other 19 were suppliers. In all, some 3,000 workers are affected by the non-payment.

One of the sub-contractors showed reporters a cheque allegedly issued by the main contractor for RM20,000 in January, which was returned by the bank as the account had been closed.

Another sub-contractor said he had won a contract to carry out works under the MRR and was promised 20 percent of the initial sub-contract sum as advance payment which never came.

The sub-contractors are now caught in a bind as they have been advised by MRR that they could not stop work until the project is completed.

Appeal

In their joint statement the sub-contractors appealed to the state government to step in and save them from possible bankruptcy.

They also want the state government to introduce stringent controls and guidelines o­n all peninsula-based and foreign companies in order to protect the interests of local contractors and sub-contractors.

"The unethical and irresponsible attitudes of some of these foreign companies would o­nly destroy the local small business in the long run should the state government fail to take necessary action," they said.

Three major operating companies in Bintulu MNLG, Shell MDS (M) Sdn Bhd and Asean Bintulu Fertilizer Sdn Bhd (ABF) were also requested to amend future contract agreements by introducing extra clauses to enable their clients to make payments directly to the local sub-contractors and suppliers instead of going through main contractors.

"We do not merely want to get what is due to us but most importantly, to raise awareness over the kind of malpractice (by some main contractors).

"(We also want) to carry out immediate measures to solve (this and prevent) similar incidents from occuring in the future," said their joint statement.

They also appealed to local elected representatives to take the matter up immediately with the state cabinet.

DAP state assemblyperson for Kidurong (Bintulu) Chiew Chin Sing has already raised the matter both within and outside the state legislative assembly o­n several occasions.