'Fallen stadium contractors unregistered and raw'

PARLIAMENT The contractor responsible for the construction of the Sultan Mizan Stadium which collapsed in 2009 and the contractor responsible for the removal or the collapsed roof were both unregistered and inexperienced, the Dewan Rakyat heard.

Revealing this during Question Time, Raja Kamarul Bahrin Raja Ahmad (PAS-Kuala Terengganu, left) said this shows that the government has not learnt from its mistakes, resulting in a second collapse this February.

“We could have learnt from what happened if we had identified the person who designed the roof but we know the contractor for the... roof wasn’t registered with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) and was inexperienced.

“The second contractor (for the dismantling of the roof) was also unregistered and inexperienced.

“What have we learnt in these four years?” he said in his supplementary question to Deputy Works Minister Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin.

He added that between the two collapses, RM40 million worth of mechanical equipment and generator sets were stolen “under a 24-hour security watch”.

“My opinion is that this is a technical and management matter,” he said.

He also pointed out that not many realise the gravity of the collapse.

“For the Malaysia Games (Sukma) 2008, 20,000 people sat in that area where the roof collapsed...,” he said.

Poor design, bad QC

Replying to him, Rosnah said that the ministry had in their initial investigations on the first collapse found that it was caused by:

• Inadequate design;

• Low-quality construction material and work that was not to specification; and

• Poor on-site quality control.

“For your information, the Terengganu government is collecting evidence to file a civil suit over negligence in this project,” she said.

Rosnah (left) added that the ministry has also formed a “special committee” of experts in the construction to study the procedures undertaken and conduct inspect of the collapse site.

“They will provide a recommendation on improvements for the government to consider,” she said, adding that the report will be ready in September.

This reply riled up Khalid Samad (PAS-Shah Alam) who decried that the ministry took too long to act.

“Shah Alam does not accept this answer!” he said, much to Rosnah’s annoyance.

Ruins of Rome

While she listed several penalties which could be taken against the negligent party, Rosnah did not say if any have been meted out to the contractors.

She also did not refute Raja Kamarul Bahrin’s claim that the contractors were unregistered and inexperienced.

Asked by Malaysiakini at the Parliament lobby if he was satisfied with the reply, an unhappy Raja Kamarul Bahrin said it appeared that the government was in “trial and error” mode when it dismantled the roof, costing them five lives.

He said that the only way to safely dismantle the roof is to track down the original designer who may be able to instruct them how to do it.

The architect, whose firm did consultancy work for the stadium but did not work on the roof, added that to this day only the firm - a foreign entity - involved in the roof design is known.

He said that the government would have to know the identity of the designer if it wanted to proceed with their civil suit.

“The (collapsed) stadium has been an eyesore for many years and it is just next to the airport, so when people arrive (in Terengganu) they see it like the ruins of Rome.

“It’s very shameful, very sad and shows there is no political will,” he said.