Prasarana chairman Tajuddin Abdul Rahman said: “We have paid, and it wasn’t a small amount. Every time they asked for payment, we pay them. We did not delay payments up to a year.”

He was speaking at a press conference about a complaint by MRCB-George Kent and its subcontractors last month that RM700 million in payments had been withheld.

Tajuddin said MRCB-George Kent was responsible for paying the subcontractors and firms under them.

MRCB-Gorge Kent, as the main contractor handling the RM11 billion project, should have the capital to reimburse their contractors, he said.

“Now that they don’t have money, they tell their contractors to whine about it,” he said.

Last week, The Edge reported that the 17 firms had written a complaint to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, the finance ministry and transport ministry, saying that Prasarana had not paid them since July.

“After taking into account work done in December, the amount owed would exceed RM1 billion”, The Edge reported.

Tajuddin said MRCB-George Kent was alleged to have put pressure on their subcontractors to reduce the contract value.

“Reducing the value of the contract to bring down the cost, isn’t fair to the subcontractors. As a chairman, I cannot keep quiet and allow that to happen, I must intervene,” he said in response to reports that he had interfered with appointments of sub-contractors.

Tajuddin said he cared about the participation of bumiputera contractors. “It is a policy which we need to support,” he said.