Police sued for RM1.5mil over tent deal

(The Star) KUALA LUMPUR: A canvas manufacturing company is suing the police force and three others for RM1.5mil for alleged breach of contract.

System Canvas (M) Sdn Bhd claimed that the police logistics department director, the police force, the Home Ministry secretary-general and the Government had failed to honour a RM833,332 contract with it.

The suit was filed through the firm of Messrs Azmi Talib and Asso-ciates at the High Court civil registry at about 1.30pm here yesterday.

In its statement of claims, the plaintiff alleged that it entered into a contract on Jan 31, 2007, with the Government to supply and deliver “multipurpose extendable tents” to the police force for the period of Oct 1, 2006, to Sept 30 last year.

It claimed that the defendants made out two purchase orders dated Feb 22, 2006 for 163 units of the tents worth RM543,333, which had yet to be settled.

It said that the items had been packed for delivery, but on July 16 last year, it was ordered to undergo a new procedure called “pre-delivery inspection”, which was not included in the terms and conditions of the contract.

The plaintiff abided by the order and the inspection was done at its premises.

However, it claimed that the defendants themselves did not have any standard operating procedure for such the inspection, and had ordered that samples be sent to the Science and Technology Research Institute for Defence (STRIDE).

“We only received STRIDE’s results on Jan 14 this year, which is after the contract period.

“After abiding by all the orders and bureaucratic procedures. we were informed on March 16 by a representative of the third defendant that as the contract period had ended, they were unable to do anything about it,” it said.

The plaintiff is claiming RM543,333 in oustanding payment and RM964,000 in special damages with cost and interest for alleged losses for the preparation of the tents as well as the storage costs.