Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang is busy sharpening his knives in preparation for the resumption of Parliament on Monday.

When the Parliament took a month-long break on Oct 15, Work Minister S Samy Vellu was facing public wrath over the cracked flyover of the Middle Ring Road II, which required RM18 million to patch up.

Hot on the heels of the MRRII problem were revelations that a slew of other government infrastructure development projects had also encountered problems, including a costly yet-to-be-completed government building, a poorly designed highway and a fungal-infected hospital.

Since then Samy Vellu had blamed the Project Management Consultants (PMC), which is under the patronage of the Finance Ministry, for the troubled projects.

The works minister claimed that the traditional role, responsibilities and powers of his Public Works Department (PWD) to monitor and supervise government infrastructure development projects had been hijacked and usurped by the PMC.

'Secret weapon'

According to Lim, whoever is finally responsible for these failed projects - be it Works Ministry, PWD, Finance Ministry or PMC - "heads must roll".

To this end, Lim is planning to deploy a 'secret weapon' next week. The opposition leader has filed a motion to invoke a rarely-used parliamentary standing order to ask a 'question without notice' to demand a full ministerial statement on the matter.

"When Parliament reconvenes next week, the country should be told the full sad story of the long list of failed government infrastructure projects," said Lim.

"The ideal position would be for the prime minister or deputy prime minister to present a White Paper listing out all the failed government infrastructure development projects, giving a separate list of those which are the result of the hijacking and usurpation of the traditional role, responsibilities and powers of the Public Works Department by the PMC."

Lim added that his Democratic Action Party had previously filed a complaint regarding possible financial irregularities and mismanagement of the powerful PMC.

"In July last year, the then DAP member of parliament for Kota Melaka, Kerk Kim Hock, sent two sets of documents which he had received through the post to the then prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, which set out serious allegations of abuse of powers in procurement procedures as well as financial mismanagement and irregularities by a top Treasury official."

Still probing

He said the documents referred to the scandalous appointment of the PMC and construction projects with financial irregularities and mismanagement running into "hundreds of millions and even billions of ringgit".

Kerk had highlighted the case of two PMC companies - UMI-Ros Project Management Sdn Bhd, with only 15 professional, four management and 17 staff personnel, but was appointed to manage projects worth RM2 billion at any one time, and QSC Project Sdn Bhd, with five professional, six management and seven staff personnel, appointed to manage projects worth RM1 billion.

"QSC was also picked to carry out audit and assessment for projects like Hospital Selayang, Pusat Teknologi Kulim, Institut Latihan Perindustrian Perlis, Perumahan Rakyat di Perlis, Perumahan Rakyat di Sabah, Perumahan Rakyat di Sarawak, etc," said Lim.

He said the response so far from the government on the complaint was a reply from the Prime Minister's Department that it was investigating the allegations.