THE contractor of the affordable housing project where yesterday’s landslide occurred in Tanjung Bungah has been blacklisted by the Penang government. 

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the “so-called experts” will also be blacklisted during the duration of the commission of inquiry.

“Because there are two – one is the developer, one is the contractor company – and it is the contractor company that is being blacklisted along with any of the so-called experts,” he said in Tanjung Bungah today.

Lim previously said that the Penang government would set up a formal commission of inquiry into the incident, which has so far claimed seven lives. Four are still missing.

Lim also said the developer would not be allowed to begin works until the commission of inquiry had completed its report.

“Until the commission of inquiry completes its work and issues its findings, the developer will not be allowed to start work on the affordable housing project.

“Something must have gone very wrong during construction as there had been no rain in the past few days that could have caused the slope to collapse. 

“While we do not wish to speculate, strong suspicions remain of professional negligence, defects in monitoring and non-compliance with work safety procedures.”

Lim, however, declined to comment on the Penang civil society groups that questioned whether the state government had been following its own safety guidelines on hillside developments.

“We are here talking about a construction site, so should focus on the construction site,” he said.

He said the terms of reference for the inquiry would be worked out in the next state executive councillors’ meeting.

“The establishment and the terms of reference will be worked out and approved at the coming Penang state exco meeting next week,” he said.

Lim said the commission of inquiry would be based on the 2013 state commission of inquiry into the collapse of a section of the Second Penang Bridge and Menara Umno fin wall collapse. – October 22, 2017.