He was responding to Najib’s claim yesterday that the project did not cost RM31.65 billion.
Najib had denied the RM31.65 billion price tag in a reply to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, who said Prasarana Malaysia which is undertaking the project had, in 2015, secured a government guarantee for a RM10 billion bond facility to fund the LRT3 project.
On March 30, Prasarana requested for an additional RM22 billion in government guarantees to ensure funding for the construction and completion of the LRT3 project.
Earlier this month, Lim said the total cost of the LRT3 project had been reduced by 47% from RM31.65 billion to RM16.63 billion, saving Malaysians a total of RM15.02 billion.
This covers all project costs, including work package contracts (WPCs), land acquisition, project management, consultancy fees, operational and overhead costs, as well as interest during construction.
In denying that the project cost RM31.65 billion, Najib said: “No approval was given and their request was not accepted. Every time an agency requests for budget does not mean that the government will accept. In fact, we reject more requests than we accept.
“No contracts worth RM15 billion or RM31 billion were signed. In fact, the letter seeking for the additional RM22 billion never even reached me and I was the finance minister then.”
Najib also noted that in 2015, Prasarana had given public assurance that it would work within the RM9 billion budget.
Addressing Najib in a statement, Pua said: “Surely you cannot be unaware that the so-called RM9 billion budget for the LRT3 that you ‘approved’ was merely for the construction cost of the LRT.
“It did not include among other things, land acquisition, PDP (project delivery partner) fees, other consultant fees, operational and overhead costs, as well as interest during construction.”
Pua, who is also DAP national publicity secretary, said by March 2018, Prasarana had awarded RM15.2 billion worth of WPCs for the construction of the LRT3 project.
“Each of these WPCs was approved by the finance ministry, of which not only were you the minister, you personally chaired the tender committee meetings.
“Hence you were obviously terrible with your job since you now claim that ‘no contracts worth RM15 billion… were signed’.”
Pua also said the fact that Najib had “not approved” Prasarana’s request yet for an additional RM22 billion allocation did not mean that the overall cost was not out of control.
“Lim Guan Eng did not say that you had approved the request for an additional RM22 billion in government guarantees. All the new finance minister said was the total cost of the project according to Prasarana had increased to RM31.65 billion. The fact that Prasarana had in 2015 given an assurance, if any at all, that the cost was RM9 billion, is irrelevant.
“Dato’ Seri Najib Razak should ask himself how he was so incompetent, ignorant, clueless and irresponsible as to be completely not aware of how the cost of the LRT3 project has gone out of control.”
Pua added that the Pakatan Harapan administration had no intention of hiding the true cost of the project.
“In this case, the overall total cost of the project has been renegotiated down to RM16.63 billion.
“This cost includes the WPCs, land acquisition, project management, consultancy fees, operational and overhead costs, as well as interest during construction,” he said.
Smaller stations, fewer trains see RM15 billion off LRT3 price tag