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Contract award of West Coast Highway is a sham

Contract award of West Coast Highway is a sham

Contract Award of West Coast Highway is a Sham
Richard Teo

It is disconcerting to learn that the West Coast Highway mooted in 1996 but put on hold because of the Asian financial crisis will be given to the original contractors awarded 11 years ago.

A project awarded 11 years ago certainly has no justification to be given to the same contractor unless the project was awarded in an open tender in 2007.

Cost of labour and price of material fluctuate over time and can bear no relationship after a period of 11 years. So on what basis was the Highway contract awarded to the same contractor?

How did the estimated cost of $3.12 billion been awarded to the contractor if there was no competitive bid for the project?

Surely a project of such magnitude would demand greater transparency and accountability. Continue reading “Contract award of West Coast Highway is a sham”

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Why 40% surge in crime after police talk of “zero crime” in KL only last November?

Why 40 percent surge in crime after police talk of zero crime in KL only last November

Two days after the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi made the call for an “all-out war against crime”, Malaysians were shaken by the revelation that there had been a 40% surge in the crime rate in Kuala Lumpur, the Federal Capital this year.

Why did crime in Kuala Lumpur surge 40% in the first three months of this year when the Police had been talking about a “zero crime” objective for the Federal capital only last November?

Malaysians can still remember reading news reports in November last year of police boasts that “there are virtually no more cases of snatch theft and wayside robbery in several crime-prone areas in the city, including the golden triangle” in Kuala Lumpur — attributed to the presence of senior police officers in patrolling the streets.

Why is the effect of the new police strategy to reduce crimes not only so short-lived but clearly counter-productive as evident from the 40% increase in Kuala Lumpur’s crime rate in the first three months of year?

Have the senior police officers been pulled out of patrolling the streets, which had been given so much publicity as the new strategy to increase police presence to fight crime? Continue reading “Why 40% surge in crime after police talk of “zero crime” in KL only last November?”