Its deputy director, Eric See-To Choong, said the payment for the highways, measuring just 20km in length, would mean almost RM11 million per kilometre was paid in fees alone although construction had not begun.
He said Chow Kon Yeow, the state executive councillor for traffic management and local government, had only admitted to a 17.6% over-payment, and not 400% as alleged by BN.
“We believe many of the excuses given by the Penang government are not valid, inaccurate and unjustifiable,” Choong said in a statement today.
“The Penang government had also admitted to breaking established guidelines for payment when it had fully paid for all the RM209 million in fees — despite none of the three roads having started construction yet, a delay of three-and-a half years.”
He added that the detailed environmental impact assessment (DEIA) study was also deemed as not complete since formal public feedback on any of the three road projects had yet to be finalised.
Choong said the BN team would furnish a detailed reply after the Hari Raya holidays.
At a press conference on June 20, BN strategic communications director Abdul Rahman Dahlan gave the Penang government one week to address allegations of overpayment.
“We will submit all the documents to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), but we want to give them an opportunity to explain first as we don’t want them to say that we are victimising them,” said the Umno minister.
The documents to which Rahman was referring to included a statement from the federal Board of Engineers, which said the state government had paid four times more than the maximum gazetted rate for detailed design fees, which the board had calculated at slightly over RM41 million.
Choong, who was present, had then said Penang had instead paid close to RM177.5 million, an overpayment of RM136.4 million.
“The Penang government should clarify why they have paid 400% higher than the maximum gazetted scale of fees for the detailed design of the three main roads,” he said.
On June 22, Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli, chairman of Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (Zenith), which won the tender for the overall RM6.3 billion project, comprising the roads and tunnels, said Rahman’s claim was made on wrong information.
He said the fees paid covered not only the three major roads, but the undersea tunnel as well.
He said the RM177.5 million paid was well within reasonable limits.
He also argued that there was no objection to the costing by the works ministry (which administers the Board of Engineers) and the Penang branch of the Institute of Engineers’ Malaysia (IEM), when the relevant documentation was presented to them.
Zarul added that a “full-fledged” presentation was also made to Works Minister Fadillah Yusof on April 6.
Fadillah refuted this, saying he had in several statements over the past year reminded the concession company that the total feasibility and design fees for the project that cost RM305 million was excessive, including in his statement issued on March 30.
He said the ministry stood by the professional opinion of the Board of Engineers that calculated the maximum allowable fees, based on the scale of rates, to be RM41 million for the portion of the Penang project consisting of the three main roads.
The minister stressed for the avoidance of doubt, that the Board of Engineers was the sole statutory board that governed the gazetted scale of fees for civil works in the country. This was provided for under the Registration of Engineers Act 1967 (Act 138).
High consultancy fees: BN gives Penang a week to answer queries