Selangor Water Scandal

Every one who sees this must seriously sit down and read this. The writer has simplified the issue for us. There is no song-and-dance in his writing. Very simply explained in language that we can comprehend. So, read this and pass it on.

by Nathaniel Tan

Here's how I would distill the decidedly murky waters surrounding the Selangor water scandal.

If I were the Selangor government, I would hammer these points and these points alone (or maybe even whittle it down even more). The facts are gleamed from a (slightly over wordy) brochure produced by the Selangor State Government.

To recap, the Selangor government is seeking to reacquire previously privatised water concessionaire companies. The Federal Government is offering to do the same, but at a much, much higher price, and under a different set of circumstances.

The long and short of it, if you believe us, is that BN is looking to spend hundreds of millions more of our money in a plan that will only further enrich cronies at the expense of the rakyat. Here's how:

1 . Under the federal plan:

- there will be a 31% INCREASE in water tariffs, as opposed to a 25% decrease in tariffs under the Selangor plan.

- the Federal Government (ie, us) will take on RM 6.4 billion of debt, currently owed by the water concessionaires.

- there will no longer be 20 cubic meters of free water every month.

2. Here's what privatised water concessionaire companies like Syabas have been up to:

- Syabas CEO Rozali Ismail's salary is a whooping RM 5.1 million a year (RM 425,000 a month).

- Pipe purchases worth RM 600 million were made from an Indonesian company, also owned by Rozali Ismail.

- No open tenders for RM 600 million worth of contracts (over 72% of the total awarded).

- RM 51.2 million spent on renovations of the Syabas head office (JKAS, the water regulatory body for Selangor approved expenditures of only RM 23.2 million)

- Between 2005 - 2007, Syabas exceeded its contract value limit by RM 200 million.

The brochure contains much, much more information and numbers, but I think the above says enough.

Clearly, some enormously fat cat cronies are getting paid off like there was no tomorrow - all this at the expense of a rakyat that is suffering and having their backs broken by an economic crisis of epic proportions.

Again, I really think Selangor and Pakatan should focus on this information, put it in a common package, and reiterate it again, again and again via every single medium (including say, billboards) at its disposal.

I've likened it before to a number of submarine commission scandals happening right under our noses, only this time, we still have the chance to stop it, if only we work hard enough.

Spread the word!!