Sweating over the direction of Malaysia’s water supply
The state governments are selling off some huge chunk of assets to a MOF owned debt-incurring special vehicle (now a term that raises tension in the US after Enron). There will be immediate cashflow to the federal government while some newly created monopoly will increase government/public borrowings.
By Lee Wee Tak
I would like to thank a dear friend of mine who pointed out another nugget to me:
In the Auditor General’s 2008 Report on the state government agencies’ workings, the state government of Negeri Sembilan has surrendered federal government loan of RM1.2 billion (i.e. tax collected from you and me which was spent on building and developing the state’s water public facility) and transferred it to Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad.
This means for Negeri Sembilan folks, for the next 35 years, water tariff you pay goes to PAAB and also the state coffer, instead of just the state only like before.
Further surfing non-porn related websites revealed the following findings:
The model of our water supply will be shifted all the way from government service to private sector.
Can anybody remember any public referendum or open tender with regards to this?
The trend is disturbing if you think of the proposed selling off of the toll concessions.
The state governments are selling off some huge chunk of assets to a MOF owned debt-incurring special vehicle (now a term that raises tension in the US after Enron). There will be immediate cashflow to the federal government while some newly created monopoly will increase government/public borrowings, run the operations and by the way, does anyone know how Indah Water Konsortium arrive at the tariff rates we paying for?
You can check out PAAB in their corporate website if you are free.
A cursory review of the Annual Reports and Accounts of PAAB for year ended 31 December (notice the “0”s in the comparative years i.e. no track record whatsoever) revealed the following:
PAAB paid RM2,774,091,000 to acquire “investment properties” in 2009 for control of water facilities in Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Johor. That works out to be about..RM102.74 per Malaysian (total 27 million); that is only the beginning.
Now how did PAAB raise the money to pay for the “investment properties”? With no track records, borrow money, of course.
I wonder if another letter of support / guarantee ala PKFTZ is floating around somewhere…..
Read more at: http://wangsamajuformalaysia.blogspot.com/2010/05/sweating-over-direction-of-malaysias.html
