RM 78 million from Sarawak’s Sewers – Taibs’ Shitload of profit!

It has emerged that Abdul Taib Mahmud and his family have conducted a massive raid on the public funding for Kuching’s new sewerage system.

By Sarawak Report

Figures show that out of a total 530 million ringgit handed out from taxpayers’ money to pay for the project, a staggering 78 million ringgit has been siphoned off by the Taib family and a crony company called Nishimatsu Construction (Nishimatsu’s parent company is currently being prosecuted in Japan in connection with a massive bribery and corruption scandal).

The theft is just the latest example of  the so-called ’skimming’ of publicly funded projects by using bogus sub-contracts, which has become a standard form of abuse in Sarawak under Taib.  Critics have condemned it as the crudest possible form of corruption. 

 ”Even a child could understand what is going on”, complained one outraged opposition figure last week, “the only reason Taib gets away with it is because he would sack any newspaper editor who dared to print what is going on.  If the people knew the extent of it, the billions he has stolen in this way, they would be marching in fury!”.

Skimming using bogus sub-contracting is now standard practice in Sarawak

The method of theft is indeed astonishingly simple and the Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, has made it common practice during his thirty years rule over the State of Sarawak.  First he abuses his position of power by placing a project in the hands of a company run by an unqualified member of his own family or a friend.  Then the crony sub-contracts the project to another company that is capable of doing the job, but for far less than the original amount.  This way the Taibs pocket the difference. 

In the case of the Kuching Sewerage System, therefore, it came as little surprise to insiders when it was announced on 30th September 2008that the Chief Minister had awarded the 530 million ringgit contract to a consortium of three companies that included Kumpulan Construction, which is run by his sister, Raziah Mahmud. She and Taib’s brother Onn own 87.5% of the shares in the company. 

So what does Raziah Mahmud know about building a public sewerage system?

Kumpulan construction reportedly has no construction equipment and Raziah Mahmud is not qualified to build a modern sewerage system.  In fact, her meteoric ‘business career’ developed shortly after Taib Mahmud became Chief Minister, when numerous public contracts started coming the way of companies suddenly started up by herself and other Taib family members.  

Onlookers point out that Raziah Mahmud has only developed one area of evident expertise, which is her ability to rapidly sub-contract projects which have been handed to her by her brother.  Thus, on 21st October 2008, less than a month after the original government contract was awarded to the consortium of Kumpulan Construction, Nishimatsu Construction and Hock Seng Lee Bhd (HSL) it was further announced by HSL that the project had now been sub-contracted to them alone, but at the much reduced sum of 452 Million Ringgit.  This leaves 78 million ringgit unaccounted for in the hands of the other two companies, Kumpulan and Nishimatsu.

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