JKR in search of better strategies for roads
Both options are definitely a better system compared to a traditional purely task based road maintenance contract.
KUCHING: The search for better strategies to Sarawak’s road asset management and maintenance approaches is underway as the long- standing 15- year road maintenance performancebased contract (PBC) between the Public Works Department (JKR) and CMS Roads Sdn Bhd (CMS Roads) draws to an end early next year.
To recap, when JKR’s road maintenance was privatised on January 1, 2003, contracts for road maintenance in the state were awarded to four main contractors, most notably, CMS Roads was given a total scope of 4,973.47 state JKR roads to maintain over a period of 15 years.
The award made CMS Roads the first and only holders of road maintenance PBC in Malaysia and has proven to be successful as the group has managed to exceed its contractual performance
Junaidi Sahadan, deputy director of JKR’s assets management
at every level for the last 14 years, as reflected in the Road Maintenance Index ( RMI) and Contractual Assessment Rating between the two organisations.
Commenting on the situation is Junaidi Sahadan deputy director of JKR’s assets management, who told The Borneo Post that the current trend the government agency is leaning towards, is to opt for another pure PBC contract or a ‘hybrid’ contract.
Junaidi explained that the ‘ hybrid’ contract they were considering would still be based on a PBC but with some of the more traditional features found in a task- based contract that would allow JKR to regain more control in road maintenance while alleviating some of the risk the contractor would be subjected to.
“Both options are definitely a better system compared to a traditional purely task based road maintenance contract.”
Agreeing with this view, CMS Road’s Construction and Road Maintenance division head Lim Jit Yaw believed the longterm contract between JKR and CMS roads was an insightful educational experience.
“Both sides have grown a lot, we are very much aware of the fact that we can do better in various areas.
We have much more expectations from each other and if we do proceed into another contract and we will need to work out a better approach to meet both our expectations as we head into the next era of road maintenance,” he said to The Borneo Post.
According to both Junaidi and Lim, CMS is currently reviewing a potential candidate for a new maintenance contract but at this point, there is no commitment yet from JKR’s part to pursue it. Turn to Page B2, Col 5