The contractor said Prasarana’s payment last October was for work completed up to the end of June, and Prasarana had still not paid more than RM700 million for work carried out from July to October.

“This was despite the amount having been certified for payment by Prasarana’s appointed independent consultant, KL Prima Consult Sdn Bhd,” MRCB-George Kent said in a statement today.

“As of October 2020, the certified payment amount was RM723.888 million, while November 2020 payment is still pending certification.”

The company added that in the meantime, it had advanced more than RM200 million to sustain the LRT3 project.

“We wish to point out that the LRT3 Work Package Contractors’ (WPC) contracts were awarded by Prasarana Malaysia via an open tender process in 2016. The successful bidders, including Bumiputera contractors, were novated to MRCB George Kent as WPC in 2019,” the company said, adding that it had treated WPC fairly.

The company said it had used the contract rates as stipulated in the original contract with Prasarana Malaysia.

The company also discussed the issue about Bumiputera contractors, saying “we have also exceeded the minimum 30% Bumiputera quota by having 39.7% Bumiputera contractors in the LRT3 project”.

The contractors were 52% local, 40% Bumiputera and 8% foreign companies, it said.

The company added that the project’s overall line wide progress was 45.8% as of Dec 31, 2020.