Sarawak minister says open tender may not always be best option

Malay Mail

KUCHING, April 23 — Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah today suggested that it may be a good idea for certain government projects to be awarded through selective or direct negotiated tender process, instead of open tender.

He said the state government should consider o a case-by-case basis whether it is more viable to just go for selective or negotiated tender instead of going for the open tender.

“In Samarahan Division, there are many projects which have been implemented successfully through open tender,” he said after chairing the Integrated Regional Samarahan Development Authority (IRSDA) steering committee meeting here.

However, he said there are projects which have become “sick” when the contractors cannot complete them according to schedule due to many factors.

“There is this Kampung Tambirat waterfront project which was awarded through open tender.

“Some parts of the waterfront project collapsed into the river and now an investigation is being carried out to determine whether it is the fault of the nature or the contractor or the consultant,” Karim, who is IRSDA chairman, said when citing an example.

He said the investigative team will come and report to the IRSDA working committee which will decide whether to terminate the contractor or ask the contractor to rectify the collapsed parts. He said another similar project is at Kampung Sageng, near Simunjan town, is also awarded through open tender.

He said the Kampung Sageng waterfront project is also under investigation on the reasons for the collapse.

“So that’s why we can’t say open tender is good for government projects, but it is not always the case,” he said.

Karim, however, said that almost 80 cent of the infrastructure projects undertaken by IRSDA have been completed since five years ago.

He said IRSDA has done exceptionally well in terms of project completion compared to other regional development authorities set up by the state government to focus on developing specific areas.

“As of this month, we have physically completed 79 per cent of the projects under the Agriculture Department, Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID), Samarahan Municipal Council (SMC) and Public Works Department (JKR),” he said.

“If we go to Asajaya, Sadong Jaya, Simunjan, Sebangan and Gedong and well as near the sea coast and inside the kampungs, we see all these projects have been completed,” he said, adding that the projects include a RM600 million embankment to prevent seawater from encroaching into agriculture land.

He said IRSDA has been allocated RM1.5 billion by the state government to implement various projects.