Dhaya Maju-LTAT, however, failed in its bid today to obtain a temporary injunction pending disposal of the lawsuit.
Also, the court heard today that no formal termination of contract had been issued by the government.
In its lawsuit, Dhaya Maju-LTAT claimed there was no basis under the law for Wee to “terminate the contract” and reopen the tender.
“The only natural logical inference is that the second defendant (Wee) is acting in bad faith, or with an improper motive,” the company said.
Dhaya Maju-LTAT contended that Wee should be held liable for tort of misfeasance in public office due to his action.
They also said they completed works for the government, amounting to over RM300 million, up to June 30.
“We contend that we were never given the chance to be heard by the minister to bring forth arguments on the letter of acceptance and revised contract sum as he was motivated by improper motive to injure us,” Dhaya Maju-LTAT added.
They are seeking a court declaration that the contract termination by Wee and the government is unlawful.
Previously, company CEO Mohamed Razeek Hussain had said they were perplexed by the “termination” of the contract, as there was “no legal or factual justification” for it.
He said Dhaya Maju-LTAT was the duly appointed contractor for the project and had received the original letter of award (LoA) on April 4, 2018, for the project under the then Barisan Nasional-led administration.
Razeek said Wee’s statement on the project had failed to accurately reflect and describe the background of the matter.
On Aug 28, Wee had said the Cabinet had agreed to convert the KVDT2 rehabilitation project to an open tender and to cancel the directly negotiated contract after it found that the project cost a lot less than the amount previously cited.
KVDT2 was one of the 101 projects costing RM6.61 billion claimed by the Perikatan Nasional government in Parliament recently as awarded through direct negotiation during the Pakatan Harapan government’s watch.
Injunction denied
High Court judge Aliza Sulaiman today heard arguments from Dhaya Maju-LTAT’s lawyer, Cecil Abraham, and senior federal counsel Asliza Ali and Habibah Haron in a bid by the company to obtain a temporary injunction pending disposal of the lawsuit.
“I’m not allowing the interim injunction because the government and its officials cannot be restrained from performing their public duties. I don’t see a need for this interim injunction to be heard,” she said.
The court ordered the company to pay RM10,000 in costs to the government. Aliza also instructed the government to file its defence statement by Oct 2 and set Oct 19 as the next case mention date.
Abraham said the company would file an appeal against the dismissal of the temporary injunction application.
Both Asliza and Habibah submitted that the court could not issue an order to restrain the government in performing its duties.
“If we want to terminate the contract, we need to inform the party involved through a formal notice. But in our case today there is no formal notice. For them to proceed with this civil action is premature,” Asliza said.
Abraham contended that Wee’s conduct in issuing the press release on Aug 28 amounted to giving the impression that the contract would be cancelled.
“We are not restraining the government and minister in performing their public duties. This case today is purely over a contractual nature,” he said.