Stop denying the undeniable, says Fadillah

Consultancy fees for three roads too high, says minister

PETALING JAYA: Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof has urged the Penang government to “stop denying the undeniable” over the exorbitant consultancy fees for three roads proposed there.

He compared this with a recent paired road highway project in Johor, where the Public Works Department (JKR) paid RM19mil in total for pre-construction consulting fees.

“These fees comprise all required services and includes the fees for all surveys, soil investigation, preliminary environmental impact assessment and all civil, structural, electrical and mechanical designs.

“The RM19mil of pre-construction consulting cost represents 2.67% of RM718,570,500 for roads totalling 30km in length,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Fadillah said not all of the fees for the project were paid before construction began as a quarter of the payment was withheld for the tendering and construction stages.

This, he said, was in accordance with the Board of Engineers Malaysia’s (BEM) guidelines.

“Compare this to the total RM220mil pre-construction fees that was already fully paid by the Penang government, which represented 11.06% of the RM1.99bil construction cost for the three roads totalling 20km in length and has yet to start construction despite a three-and-a-half-year delay,” he said.

The cost of the consultation fees for the three paired roads meant to be the traffic dispersal system of Penang’s proposed undersea tunnel project has been a point of contention between the state and federal governments.

The Works Ministry, BEM and Barisan Nasional strategic communications director Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan had expressed strong views that the state had significantly overpaid the fees.

The Penang government has maintained that the fees paid was not excessive.

The total RM220mil pre-construction fees was fully paid, which represented 11.06% of the RM1.99bil construction cost for the three roads. Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof