New RM97 million police HQ half-done and abandoned

  By Ivan Ho - Free Malaysia Today

LAHAD DATU: Yet another government mega project, the RM97 million construction of the new district police headquarters here, has been abandoned and left in a derelict state due to an alleged disagreement between the Finance Ministry's main contractor and its sub-contractor. The project commenced in Jan 17, 2007 and was supposed to have been completed on March 10 last year.

Silam DAP branch is now asking the Barisan Nasional government to explain why the project has been abandoned.

Branch chairman Tajuldin Abdul Rahim said a delegation from the party paid a surprise visit to the site after being tipped off by the public recently and they were shocked to see the state of the building.

"Our further investigations revealed that a company managed by the federal Finance Ministry, Pembinaan BLT Sdn Bhd, is the contractor, while Syarikat Pembenaan Karun Sdn Bhd is supervising the project.

“The two companies are believed to be in some disagreement that has caused the entire project to come to a standstill for over a year now,” he said.

Tajuldin said it was surprising that such a high-profile and important project could be treated so shabbily by the BN government.

"Whatever it is, we’re very disappointed at the attitude of the BN government for not taking immediate action to remedy the situation.

“As a responsible government they shouldn’t just let this project be abandoned. They must find ways to speed up the completion to benefit the people here," he added.

Abandoned Islamic centre in the area too

Sabah DAP deputy chairman Anthony Teo said the speedy completion of the project would enable the police personnel to have a better living and working environment to discharge their duties as the present aged district police headquarters and police barracks are no longer in use.

"The government should not concentrate too much on (being) Juara Rakyat (people’s champion). What is the use of Juara Rakyat when Suara Rakyat (people’s voice) is being ignored," said Teo.

He added that it was surprising that the government did not have a mechanism to supervise the government project.

The delegates also paid a courtesy call on district police chief Supt Shamsudin Bin Mat and briefed him about the party's recently established Silam branch.

The branch last month exposure the abandoned Islamic Training Center in Tungku that cost more than RM20 million.