MRCB George Kent Sdn Bhd, in a late media statement, has clarified that Prasarana Malaysia Bhd’s delayed payments dated Oct 2, 2020 were for completed construction works ended June 2020.
Meanwhile, Prasarana’s delayed payments of more than RM700 mil were from July 2020 to October 2020 as have been certified for payment by Prasarana’s appointed independent consultant KL Prima Consult Sdn Bhd.
“As of October 2020, the certified payment amount was RM723.89 mil while November 2020 payment is still pending certification,” the project delivery partner (PDP) of the Light Rail Transit 3 (LRT3) pointed out.
This follows revelation by Prasarana’s non-executive chairman Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman that the company has paid RM3.47 bil to MRCB George Kent up to Oct 2, 2020.
Earlier today, FocusM ran a story of 17 contractors who were appointed to complete the LRT3 project sending appeal letters to Putrajaya’s top officials, urging them to step in and release more than RM700 mil owed for works done on the project.
“We have paid them and it is not a small sum of money! RM3.468 billion. Every time they claimed, we would pay without hesitation,” the Pasir Salak Member of Parliament (MP) who took over the chairmanship in May was cited by The Edge as saying.
“The subcontractors are not our contractors. They should go to MRCB George Kent (and complain). If there is any issue, it’s none of our business.”.
To this, the joint venture which was appointed on Sept 4, 2015 further noted that it has advanced more than RM200 mil to sustain the LRT3 project.
Both MRCB and George Kent have also given a corporate guarantee to Prasarana Malaysia and issued a paid-up capital of RM5 mil each.
“We wish to point out that the LRT3 Work Package Contractors’ (WPC) contracts were awarded by Prasarana Malaysia via an open tender process in 2016,”
“The successful bidders, including Bumiputra contractors, were novated to MRCB George Kent as WPC in 2019,” noted MRCB George Kent.
“We have treated our WPC fairly by applying the contract rates as stipulated in the original contract with Prasarana Malaysia.”
The joint venture partner has also exceeded the minimum 30% Bumiputera quota by having 39.7% Bumiputera contractors in the LRT3 project. The breakdown of our contractors is as follows: local (52%), Bumiputera (40%) and foreign (8%).
The LRT3 project’s overall line wide progress was 45.8% as of Dec 31 last year. The project hires 21 main contractors and consultants as well as 10,000 employees.
“We will continue to work with Prasarana Malaysia in a professional way to resolve all matters to ensure smooth delivery of the project,” added MRCB George Kent. – Jan 4, 2021
