MP SPEAKS The RM378 million Sarawak General Hospital multi-storey carpark project exceeds all reasonable construction costing allegedly by more than 200 percent, ie. at least triple the reasonable standard industrial costs.

This is a consequence of the government awarding projects without going through open tender. At the end of the day, the people are forced to pay more and project gets delayed because of the alleged never-ending greed of the BN crony.

According to an answer given to the MP for Stampin, Julian Tan, the health minister said that the said SGH multi-storey carpark project include the following:

1. A multi-storey carpark building with 1750 parking bays;

2. A budget hotel with 160 rooms;

3. A day-care block with seven operation theatres, four endoscopy rooms and some day-care wards;

4. A Pathology block with laboratory testing facilities and blood bank.

And that the whole project with costs RM351 million.

This answer was given by the health minister in November 2015. Six months later when SUPP president Dr Sim Kui Hian announced the project on May 19, 2016, it has escalated to RM378 million. Why was there an increase of RM27 million in construction costs in only a short span of six months?

This RM27 million cannot be the Goods and Services Tax (GST) because the 6 percent GST on RM351 million is only RM21 million.

Dr Sim claims that there is an additional RM26 million GST component which was not included in the initial costing of the contractor and now is causing the delay in the implementation of the whole project.

Even if we accept the price to be RM378 million, 6 percent GST on RM378 million is only RM22.68 million, NOT RM26 million. Unless there are some huge hidden costs which were not disclosed.

No matter which figure one uses, either RM378 million or RM351 million, it is an astronomical over-inflated amount for the whole project.

Let me give a simple breakdown on the construction for those four items as follows:

1. The multi-storey carpark

According to the Kuching city Councils, the standard measurement for parking bay in a multi-storey carpark building is 2.5 metre width and 5 metre length. Therefore, the surface area of a parking bay is 12.5 m2.
For 1,750 parking bays, the total surface area is thus 21,875 m2.
Given another equal surface area for the driveway within the building, the total surface area for the said multi-storey carpark is thus 43,750 m2.
The average costs of building a multi-storey carpark building in Malaysia is RM700 per m2.
Therefore, the costs for the 1,750 parking bay multi-storey carpark building is thus RM30.6 million. Given another 15 percent for contingency expenses, it will cost at most only RM35 million.

2. The 160-room budget hotel

According to Malaysia’s Construction Industrial Guideline, the costs of building a three-star hotel is approximately RM5000 per m2.
The standard hotel room in Malaysia is 32 m2.
Therefore, for a 160-room hotel, the surface area is only 5120 m2.

Multiply this by RM5000 per m2, the costs for building a 160-room three-star hotel is approximately RM25.6 million. For a budget hotel, the construction costs is cheaper by at least another 30 percent.

3. The Daycare and Pathology Blocks

Whether the construction costs include equipment is not known, but let us make a simple comparison with the proposed new KPJ hospital currently under construction near Kuching BDC area.
The new proposed KPJ Specialist Hospital consists of 300 beds, facilities for chemotherapy, radiation oncology, heart surgery, ICU/HDU/CICU, etc. costs only RM130 million.
As compared, the proposed Daycare and Pathology blocks in the SGH carpark project do not include any radiotherapy or chemotherapy treatment equipment. It does not include the ICU/HDU/CICU which are very expensive to equip. It is surely a lot smaller and less equipped than the 300-bed KPJ Specialist Hospital.
If the building of a whole new 300-bed KPJ Specialist Hospital from scratch will cost only RM130 million, surely it is too generous to give an estimate of 30 percent of that amount for the Daycare and Pathology blocks, which is RM40 milion.

Therefore, going by the above calculation, the SGH project comprising the multi-storey carpark building, budget hotel, daycare and pathology blocks will cost at most RM100 million. The RM378 million suggested by Dr Sim is ridiculously high.

This over-inflated construction costs will ultimately be borne by Sarawakians who will at one point of time be using the facilities over the next few decades.

This is similar to the tolled highway in West Malaysia where the people in West Malaysia are paying for the over-inflated highway construction costs for decades and are still paying.

As a doctor himself, Dr Sim ought to know the estimated figure is ridiculously high. Why is he keeping mum on this and allow the BN crony company to allegedly rip off the people.

One point that we must be clear, money is limited resources and there is always a limit on the allocation for Sarawak. If we over-spent RM270 million on this project, we have to give up projects in other aspect to the amount of RM270 million.

At the end of the day, the people in Sarawak are deprived of some facilities that we could have enjoyed with RM270 million allocation which ended up in the bank accounts of the BN cronies.

CHONG CHIENG JEN is MP for Bandar Kuching, state assemblyperson for Kota Sentosa and Sarawak DAP chairperson.