Tuesday, June 27, 2006

10 Years To Build A School

I may not have the experience in construction, but if given the responsibility, I'm pretty sure I won't need 10 years to complete the building of a secondary school. But that is exactly what happened to a school in Rawang whereby it has not been completed after 10 years!

The Minister of Education, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said that
"I am disgusted with the numerous excuses given by the contractor." He said the contractor had been sacked and a new one would be appointed to revive the project.

"If all goes well, we hope to have the school ready by the end of the year."
It's interesting that in Malaysia, it takes 10 long years for our civil service to get "disgusted" with shoddy work from their contractors. To be fair to the Minister, he was only given the Education portfolio 4 years ago (still a long time, though).

The interesting question then is, how much have been paid to the contractor, and is the guilty party being sued for liquidated damages?

The Minister loudly proclaimed "[t]his sort of thing will not happen under the Ninth Malaysia Plan". We all hope so too. However, when there has been no apparent action taken on the guilty parties, the likelihood of such occurrences will remain high.

To make sure that the 9th Malaysia Plan education projects are completed on a timely basis, it is critical for the Ministry to set performance targets for contractors - such as a fixed term, say 2 years, to complete building a school and a maximum extension of 1 year, after which the contract may be automatically terminated and compensation sought.

Datuk Seri, is there political will to do so?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

..may or may not be one school contract..could be package award but still no authorities concern over the years..negligence or ignorant? Blame the contractor..he is smallish, lack experience and lack of funding but some how he got the contract?..know how none..know who lots..


..inspired :)

Anonymous said...

The entire KLCC (twin towers, suria, car parks, tunnels, recreational parks) took two and a half years, from a jungle of trees to hand over (complete with intelligent building management system)!!!

Anonymous said...

What about the famous "eyesore" that has been kept camouflaged from the view of the public....THE EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE of UNIVERSITY MALAYA?

It has been under the state of CONSTRUCTION COMATOSE for a number of years from PRE BILL BOARD HASHIM TO POST BILL BOARD HASHIM era

Will some one from the UNIVERSITY or respective ministries care to explain to the public?

Will it end up costlier to scrap as the famous virtual scenic bridge of Johore?

Our government is really good at house keeping and pulling wool out of the Rakyats eyes...!

Anonymous said...

Maybe our dear minister Samy Vellu care to comment?

Anonymous said...

Hmm, Samy don't care about anything as long as his pocket is full, not even his fellow Indians. Pity, they still vote for him for 25 years.

Anonymous said...

Plez don't make too much fuss about this take more than "10 years to complete the building of a secondary school" incident.

Don't you see in Malaysia we looove creating records and this project is on its way to the Book of Records. Just like the Experimental Theatre in UM, an icon to remind us of our love for records - the longest time to repair a tiny building, spread over the rule of two or even three Prime Ministers - as well as our love for distribution of money into many pockets, i.e., wealth sharing and creation among some of our fellow citizens (plez don't misinterpret it as an icon of shame or inefficiency or corruption - shame on you to have such sinister thoughts).

Majulah Malaysia!

Anonymous said...

I propose Guiness Book of Records of Malaysia record the Renovation and repair of the Experimental Theatre as the the building that takes the longest time to repair

Anonymous said...

i wonder why dont the government sue the contractor?

Anonymous said...

Sue the contractor? Blasphemy!

Obviously you don't know the beauty of doing business in Malaysia as a bumiputra contractor (BC).

A BC is almost usually given a contract even though the quotation or tender is not the cheapest. Get the money, subcontract and sub-, sub- the contract several times to try to get the project done. If not possible, say bye-bye to the project, abandon it, and go for more contracts.

A BC cannot be penalised if the project is delayed in completion or abandoned, or if the product is substandard. No compensation asked either. Can still bid for more new projects even with this sort of track record. The best way to do business in the world. Profit guaranteed.

Haven't you seen the countless abandoned, long-delayed, or substandard buildings, roads, bridges, schools, computer labs, overhead bridges, flyovers, etc all over our beloved boleh country?

Ha, ha, ha ......... why don't the government sue the contractor (BC)? Left hand suing the right hand? 'Kai kee lan' (Hokkien = orang sama) lah! How to be rich then from Ah Kong's money?