AUDIT REPORT | A six-year delay in project completion was among the reasons that led to the Rawang Bypass project cost bloating 208.7 percent to RM628.14 million.

The contractor had secured the RM203.47 million contract via direct tender. Work on the 23km road project commenced in July 2005 and was slated for completion in January 2008.

However, Extensions of Time (EOT) for 2,132 days were approved causing the contractor to claim losses and expenses amounting to RM7.88 million.

Following the latest EOT, the project was scheduled for completion on March 16 this year. However, as of Feb 15, only 97.15 percent was completed.

This was revealed in the Auditor-General's Report 2016 Series 1, which was tabled in Parliament today.

In the meantime, two additional contracts were signed in March 2009 and December 2011.

While the March 2009 contract made changes with regard to the price of construction material, the contract cost, however, remained the same.

The second contract stated several additional works, including a 3.3 km alternative road through Taman Warisan, 2.64 km elevated structure and upgrading work of 1.57 km to an existing federal road for a total of RM390 million.

The additional works were slated to be completed in 40 months from December 2011.

Other factors which resulted in the increase of cost for the bypass project were:

- Design changes in the overlapping routes between elevated structures with the Assam Jawa Taman Rimba Highway (LATAR) resulted in an additional cost of RM34.2 million.

- Delay in settling the compensation for land acquisition with valid justification resulted in the payment of penalty amounting to RM5.52 million to interested parties.

Via the audit conducted between October and December 2016, the auditor-general found that the project was well managed in terms of contract administration and quality of work.

The report pointed out that the delay was caused by third parties' "work procedures and processes which were beyond the Public Works Department's (JKR) control”.

It was also revealed that the 12.2 percent progress claims by the contractor amounting to RM64.6 million were paid late between 15 and 118 days.

Rawang Bypass is a high-impact infrastructure project, which links the road network to Kuala Lumpur city, under the 9th Malaysia Plan.

It aims to solve the traffic congestion in Bandar Rawang and to improve the existing road network to Kuala Lumpur city.