No Borneo Highway scraps for Sabah

KUALA LUMPUR: Another two Sabah MPs, echoing Kalabakan MP Abdul Ghapur Salleh’s comments in Parliament on Wed on the budget speech, want the RM 27 billion contract packages for the 1,633 km Pan Borneo Highway to be awarded by open tender.

Jimmy Wong and Stephen Wong, Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan MPs respectively, have expressed fears that behind the scene moves are underway to award the Sabah stretch of the contract to the Peninsular Malaysia-based UEM-MMC Consortium under the guise of a government-private sector partnership initiative.

The two Wongs disclosed that their claim on the award of the contracts was based on reliable information. Any kind of direct negotiations was totally unacceptable and inconsistent with the open tender process called for under the Government Transformation Programme, they added.

“We do not want Sabah companies to pick up scraps from the table by being sub-contractors to Peninsular Malaysian companies who will reap most of the profits from the contract,” said Jimmy on the sidelines of the Parliamentary session on Wed.

“We do not want the highway to impose toll and make Sabahans, already living in the poorest state, suffer like fools while the payments make Peninsular Malaysian companies very rich.”

He urged the Federal Government to finance the entire Pan Borneo Highway project instead of looking to the private sector to carry the burden.

UEM and MMC, it’s understood, will play no part in the Sarawak stretch of the contracts which will go to local companies. One fear here is that companies linked to the ruling Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) will secure the Sarawak stretch through negotiated tenders.

Sarawak does not hesitate to use its autonomy in immigration matters to keep out Peninsular Malaysian operations deemed inimical to its interests.

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