THE government has always chosen companies based on meritocracy and not out of poilitical considerations, said Prime Minister Najib Razak.

“The key word is capability. When you choose vendors, you cannot choose on the basis of political consideration, giving to rent seekers and so forth.

“We must give to quality companies, local companies.

“One of the reasons why MRT1 was implemented a few weeks ahead of schedule and RM2 billion below budget is because we chose quality local companies through a very transparent and vigorous tender exercise,” said Najib at a townhall session at the SME Annual Showcase and SME Conference at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Center (MITEC) today.

MMC Corp and Gamuda are the local companies that managed the construction of the completed first phase of MRT which cost RM21 billion. The second phase currently under construction is estimated to cost RM40 billion.

“If you go on that premise, then you find that Malaysian companies can deliver,” said Najib.

The government, however, had opted for a turnkey model for the third phase of MRT that critics argued would squeeze out local firms.

DAP publicity chief Tony Pua said last Saturday that the turnkey approach was also used in the 688km East Coast Railway Link (ECRL) project financed and built by China Communications Construction Company Ltd (CCCC).

“It is the same for the ECRL project – what is the point of awarding the RM55 billion contract directly to CCCC without any open tender merely for 1% lower in financing cost, when the government’s own consultants estimated the project to cost less than RM30 billion?

“What’s more, the unprecedented stringent financing requirements seem intentionally designed to disqualify local, experienced major infrastructure builders like Gamuda Bhd or MRCB,” said Pua. – November 11, 2017.