Federal Territories PAS Youth says it will lodge reports against the contractor of the City Orchard Park project in Jalan Bellamy, Kuala Lumpur with the police and the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) for allegedly causing a lot of problems.

The RM17.25 million project's series of problems were highlighted in the Auditor-General's Report 2012 published last year.

"This issue has still been silenced by the parties involved and Federal Territories PAS Youth will make a police report to pressure for investigations and meet MACC to get information on the status of the report's revelations.

"This is done to seek the truth and ensure that people's money are channelled properly," said Federal Territories PAS deputy youth chief Nurul Islam Mohammed Yusoff in a statement issued yesterday.

He added that the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), which appointed the contractor, should be more prudent with its finances.

Among others, the audit report says that Zikhtar Associates Sdn Bhd (ZASB) won the contract through direct negotiations.

Breaking guidelines no problem

This even though it did not met any of the Ministry of Finance's guidelines to justify the direct appointment, such as urgency, for strategic and security reasons, or limited number of contractors available for such ventures.

In addition, the report says the contractor and its landscape architecture consultant Gold Green Associates do not have specific expertise in creating orchards.

This, combined with other problems, led to 55.1 percent of the 573 original fruit trees and 39.3 percent of the 768 original forest trees planted by ZASB being found dead during an audit inspection on Sept 27, 2012, while the rest were stunted, diseased, or simply not bearing fruits.

DBKL had to spend RM563,417.52 on other contractors to remedy the problems, including the planting of 386 new trees in the process.

The auditor-general also found that the contract specifies a playground with six components to be constructed for RM194,200, but only one component was supplied at a higher price of RM230,000.

No variation order was found to have been approved for this change.

The project is meant to be a recreational park and orchard for tourists as well as Kuala Lumpur dwellers to learn about the country's local fruits.