The Ministry of Finance of has been accused by Sarawak DAP of awarding a contract to construct Package B of the Song-Sungai Yong road in Kapit to a crony company that stands to earn an extra RM20 million from the project.

The contract was awarded on Nov 17, 2014, to Impian Zaman Sdn Bhd at RM119.83 million, Sarawak DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen told a media conference today.

Chong suspects that the owners of Impian Zaman are linked to some leaders of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), which has close ties with Umno.

Claiming that the highest and the lowest tender prices ranged from RM82,857,153 to RM141,290,530, he said: “At this crony price (RM119,830,000) for the said package, the cost of the project has escalated by 20 percent or RM20 million.

“This would not have happened if the project was awarded by open tender. Now, at least RM20 million of the taxpayers’ money is going to enrich the BN crony.”

Chong who is the MP for Bandar Kuching and Kota Sentosa assemblyperson, said the Finance Ministry had in February this year called for an open tender process to construct the Package B project and this attracted 53 tenderers.

Unknown to the contractors, the Ministry of Finance cancelled the open tender process and applied the ‘selected tender’ process, whereby only 10 contractors outside the 53 contractors were selected by the ministry, he said.

'MACC a lapdog of PM Najib'

“How can a company with a paid-up capital of only RM1 million  undertake a RM119.83 million construction work, which is more than 100 times its paid-up capital?” he asked.

“We in DAP have earlier lodged a report on the secret conversion of the ‘open tender’ to ‘selected tender’ for this road project with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), but it refuses to investigate.

“This is proof that the MACC is more of a figurative ‘lapdog’ of Najib, rather than an enforcement body to inculcate integrity in the system,” he added.

That was why it would not investigate the Finance Ministry, which Najib heads, even when there are glaring improprieties, he said.

He said with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak talking about cutting subsidies  and increasing taxes on the people to support the government’s coffers, his ministry was still dishing out lucrative and over-priced contracts for the benefit of the BN cronies at the expense of the rakyat.

This was most unfair to the people, he said, pointing out that at this juncture, the country and the people were facing one of the toughest times since the 1997 currency crisis due to, among others, a more than 40 percent drop in international oil prices, which has reduced the overall government’s revenue by 15 percent.

It was also due to the government’s debt, which had increased to an unprecedented level of RM569 billion, the depreciation of the ringgit value as well as the illicit money outflow at an alarming level of RM171.1 billion, Chong said.

Chong said that for every ringgit of tax money the people pay, at least 20 percent goes to enrich the BN cronies.

This has gone on for decades, and would continue as long as BN was the government. At the end of the day, the rakyat would be forced to pay more taxes to finance the “financial interests” of these cronies, he added.