KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition member Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man today took a jab at Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for his ignorance to cancel several government projects.
Likening Anwar to a Mynah bird, Tuan Ibrahim said the prime minister was oblivious to the issues he was dealing with.
During the 2023 Budget debate in Dewan Rakyat today, Tuan Ibrahim questioned the prime minister's rationale for the re-tendering of six flood mitigation programmes beginning June.
Tuan Ibrahim said it made no sense to call off the projects and issue a re-tendering of awards to reduce the government's spending as some of the projects had not yet begun.
"It is peculiar (for Anwar) to announce the cancellation of the mitigation projects when the projects have not even started yet. There are no acceptance letters and no contractors appointed.
"Hence, how can you cancel something that has not even begun? Rather than reducing the government's spending, the re-tendering of the project will only cause losses. Costs will only increase every time a project is postponed," he said.
On Feb 24, Anwar announced that the government would re-tender six flood mitigation projects starting June this year.
Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said the projects included flood-mitigation work at Sungai Johor, Kota Tinggi, Johor; the construction of the Sungai Klang-Sungai Rasau dual-function reservoir; and the Phase 3 of the Sungai Golok Integrated River Basin Development (RTB).
He said the re-tendering of the projects could guarantee the best value and reduce the government's expenditure by up to RM2 billion from the initial RM15 billion allocated for flood mitigation projects.
Following this, Tuan Ibrahim said the re-tendering of the projects would only cause another RM6 to RM7 billion in losses to the country due to natural disasters, such as floods which occur every year.
He also claimed that the RM6 billion Sungai Klang-Sungai Rasau dual-function reservoir project and Phase 3 of the Sungai Golok RTB were still in negotiation terms for the contractors.
"There are no contractors yet and the projects are still on negotiation terms under the Finance Ministry (MOF) itself.
"We need proper clarification from the prime minister himself as some of the projects have been planned since the Ninth Malaysian Plan.
"Therefore, I hope that what has been stored in the plan will not be reshuffled and changed every time the government changes, whether it (the project) is through an open or limited tendering process, the terms are still within MOF's requirements."
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