GEORGE TOWN: Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd today denied having attempted to use the name of Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof to justify the allegation of high fees for Feasibility Studies and Detailed Design for the Penang Tunnel and three main road projects.
Its chairman, Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli, said he had checked with his consultants and they affirmed that a meeting with Fadillah had taken place in April to discuss the alleged high fees.
“It was not an attempt by us to use the name of the ministry and your name (Fadillah) to defend the allegation of high fees for Feasibility Studies and Detailed Design. During the meeting, we presented our Feasibility Studies and Detailed Design works including the breakdown of the fee structure. Wouldn’t it be odd that we came to your ministry to talk about the delay of Feasibility Studies of Undersea Tunnel without discussing about the fee that you have alleged to be ‘excessive’,” he said in a statement here yesterday.
He was responding to Fadillah who had on Thursday expressed regret over Zenith using his name and the ministry’s to justify the high payments for consultancy fees of the projects.
Zarul explained that the company had won the project on an open-tender based on the overall cost of RM305 million for the Feasibility Studies, Detailed Design and Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment.
“The cost of RM305 million includes Land Survey, Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment, Quantity Survey, Flood & Drainage Study, Civil, Structural & Geotechnical, Land/Highway Tunnel, Architectural, Mechanical & Electrical, Project Management, Social Impact Study, Traffic Impact Study, Financial Feasibility & Funding Management, Hydraulic study, Marine Study and Undersea Tunnel,” he said.
On Wednesday, Barisan Nasional strategic communications director Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan announced that his team sought the professional opinion of the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) on the costing of three paired roads meant to be the traffic dispersal system of the proposed undersea tunnel.
BEM was said to have replied that the RM177 million in detailed design costs was four times higher than the maximum allowed under the gazetted scale of fees, which the board calculated to be RM41 million.
However, Zarul said BEM’s RM41 million estimation consisted of only fees for designing civil and structural works.
He said the cost included 11 divisions of work, such as mechanical and electrical, detailed environmental impact assessment, social and traffic impact studies, and financial feasibility and funding management. — Bernama