CONTRACTORS of Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) that fail to comply with the new health, safety and environment (HSE) standards the state-owned power company had set could be excluded in future contract bids.

SEB Health, Safety, Security and Environmental (HSSE) Department group vice-president Marconi Madai said those that persistently fail to comply with the safety standards will see their bids frozen until SEB is satisfied with improvements.

Madai said while the company is adopting the safety culture found in the oil and gas industry, it will giving its contractors some leeway to comply with the standards it had set.

Even then, he said, SEB still needs to get tough as one contractor found out recently.

The contractor was slapped with a stop work order over a serious safety violation.

“When we started this HSE programme 11 months ago, we found only one contractor out of the 19 we have, had actually met the industry safety standards.

“A couple of companies had no safety standards of any description at all. Many of them do not even have a safety manuals, and basic safety equipment like safety boots or hard hats for their workers were considered unnecessary costs.

“They were awarded the contracts purely on their competency.”

That, Madai said, will be a thing of the past as he is pushing for the health and safety standards weightage for contract bids from the current 5% to “10 to 15%”.

SEB chief executive officer Sharbini Suhaili said while the power company strives to ensure a culture of safety among its contractors, he said “we are not there yet”.

“We are continuing to record injuries and fatalities, particularly in our contractor community,” Sharbini said.

He said while SEB’s safety culture is growing stronger among its contractors, “there is much left to be done to promote a stronger safety culture”.

He said up to September this year, SEB’s lost time injury frequency rate is 0.529 – higher the target of 0.5 it had set.

The one fatality, a contractor who was electrocuted while working at one of its sub-stations, was “one fatality too many”, he said.

“No one should get hurt while working with Sarawak Energy. We do not accept living in a world of non-compliance or watered down standards.” – November 24, 2018.