Why must the public foot the RM100 million bill just because the government erred in its unilateral decision to construct the half-bridge to Singapore?

That is the question posed today by parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang on the government's abrupt cancellation of the project.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that contractor Gerbang Perdana would be paid a total of RM100 million in compensation.

Furthermore, it was revealed that the contract with Gerbang Perdana also stipulated that the government would pay RM1 million for each month that the project was delayed.

Transparent audit

Lim lambasted the government for the blunder as it was not practicing prudent spending, although Abdullah himself launched a Prudent Spending Campaign just the day after the cancellation.

"A full proper and transparent audit should be conducted to determine the liability for the RM100 million compensation... to establish whether the company should bear partial responsibility for the losses suffered...," he said in a statement.

He added that Gerbang Perdana did not suffer losses due to the cancellation despite having strongly lobbied for the construction of the bridge.

Lim also lamented that contradictory statements by Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar on the bridge controversy had left Malaysians reeling.

Elaborating, he said Syed Hamid's insistence that international law was siding Malaysia should the issue be brought to the international court, contradicted an earlier statement from the Prime Minister's Department which said that the law required mutual consent on both sides.

Nation's interest

The foreign minister was also taken to task by the veteran politician for maintaining that the cabinet decision to scrap the project was made in the 'nation's interest'.

"Wasn't the earlier cabinet decision to start work unilaterally on the bridge also made in the nation's interest?" he asked.

Lim also questioned how Syed Hamid could in the past term the half-bridge as a "bridge of friendship".

"If so, how was it allowed to proceed on a unilateral basis, in the teeth of opposition from Singapore, making a total mockery of the meaning of a 'bridge of friendship'?" he said.

Following the government's decision to scrap the bridge project, Works Minister S Samy Vellu said a new proposal would be put forward to construct a six-lane elevated highway instead to link the RM1.2 billion Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex.

There was concern that with the latest development, the CIQ complex would be rendered a white elephant.