PAS vice president Husam Musa has urged the government to explain several issues pertaining to the scrapping of the RM1.5 billion Broga incinerator project.

Husam, on behalf of all Malaysians, posed several questions on the matter in a hand delivered letter to the Deputy Prime Minister's Office yesterday.

"The main question is - why only now has the government realised that the cost of the project was too high?

"With the available expertise and consultants, it's impossible that the government did not realise the implications (of the project earlier)," he said in the letter.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is the only Cabinet minister to have spoken on the matter so far, citing unsustainable cost as the reason for scrapping the project, three years after it was approved.

On July 11, Najib denied rumours that the compensation for the consortium charged with building the incinerator to be between RM500 million to RM700 million.

"No, that is off the mark. I can't give the real figure but the number given is not accurate," he reportedly said, adding that negotiations were ongoing.

Negotiation committee

In view of the possible high compensation, Husam suggested that a parliamentary negotiation committee be established and that an international audit firm be appointed to check all the claims document.

"Ministers and ministries that have erred... should not be given negotiation duties because they were involved in the prior decision," he said.

He said a white paper on the compensation should be tabled in Parliament and the compensation amount should be agreed by Parliament.
He added that the government must identify the party responsible for the losses that would strain public coffers.

"I still remember that during the Dewan Rakyat proceedings (since June 2003)... opposition members were chided by the minister (of housing and local government) for raising the (incinerator) issue.

"But finally, what we raised has proven to be true, but it is too late," noted the former Kubang Kerian MP in the letter.

Half-bridge compensation?

It was as early as August last year that Japan's Ebara Corporation and local partner Harta Summa Sdn Bhd were notified of the project being scrapped by the government.

Ebara then reportedly filed a RM500 million claim over the stalled project's progress payment.

Official confirmation of the project's cancellation came on July 6, when the government tendered a one-paragraph letter to the Shah Alam High Court, where a suit by a Kampung Broga resident on the matter was being heard.

In concluding his letter, Husam reminded the government that the country incurred losses on many occasions due to the government reversing its decisions and cancelling development projects.

"On this occasion, allow me, on behalf of the rakyat, enquire for the total amount of compensation and losses due to the cancellation of the half-bridge (to Singapore)," he said.


BROGA: Project incinerated

Photographs courtesy of Amin Iskandar