Plaza Damas Probe Committee

Former Public Works Department (PWD) Director-General Tan Sri Omar Ibrahim was appointed by the Works Minister Datuk Seri Samy Vellu to be the chairman of the committee that will probe into the accident that killed management consultant Dr Liew Boon Horng.

This committee was set up within the Malaysian Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) as the Investigations Committee and will include current PWD Deputy Director-General II Dr Judin Abdul Karim and PWD Director of Expert and Civil Engineering Branch P.N. Selvanayagam. Other members of the committee would be selected by Tan Sri Omar in consultation with the Works Minister and the CIDB.

I am sure Tan Sri Omar, a person who commands high respect, will do his job thoroughly and efficiently. Tan Sri Omar is recognised as a NO-Nonsense guy and he doesn't curry flavour or compromise his integrity.

But what suprised me is two key elements:

First, why is CIDB involved in such investigation? In the first place, CIDB had never shown to be involved actively in monitoring or controlling the construction projects in whatever role that can tangibly be said to have proactively, nor productively, being a partner of the industry other than to spent time in India trying to secure some projects and selling it to the few high profile Malaysian contractors for a percentage of commissions.

Since the setup of CIDB decades ago, what had been seen of CIDB in the eyes of contractors and property developers is that they exist to collect 0.25% of the project contract sum from the contractors for each and every construction project exceeding $500,000. Thereafter, nothing beneficial had been done to assist the contractors other than to ensure that the contractors register themselves with them, buy the green cards issued by CIDB, and apart of this, is the great Indian mission of projects.

Each year, more than RM20 billion worth of government project had been executed and awarded and out of which, 0.25% will be worth RM50 million. Should we include private projects, the collections by CIDB would be worth around RM100 million. After collecting these contributions from the contractors, what had the contractors benefitted? Absolutely nothing; asked any contractors!!!

As the industry regulators and promoters, CIDB should had never played a beneficial role to contribute positively the development of the construction industry standards, in particular, the standards of construction methodology and quality of the works. Somehow, it's role is somewhat like a tax and debt collector, licence operator, and now, the new role is investigator and policemen of the contractors.

Is it the way that Malaysian government set up regulatory institutions?

Take an anology: If parents duty to their children is to police them of their activities and punish them if they are naughty; cane them when they don't study or fail in their exam; scold them if they don't behave; and slap them if they are delinquent; would you think the children will become a better person when they grow up? Would you think the children will learn to behave better or improve themselves from such enforcement?

Governmental institutions such as CIDB, DOSH, City Hall, etc, should be playing active and proactive role in development and progression. It is not about enforcement and policing that can contribute to national development and improvement. It is being involved with the industry, understanding their weakness and needs, promoting quality, safety, and competence that we can see improvements and maturity.

The Human Resources Ministry wants answers from the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) on the 700 cases of negligence at project sites reported since 2003. Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn said his ministry would meet with the board this week to ascertain what was wrong in the industry. “We want to know the outcome of their investigations as CIDB has the power to issue stop-work orders and take action against errant contractors. We are serious as we do not want a repeat of the tragedy which happened in Sri Hartamas (Kuala Lumpur) last week,” he said. Dr Fong statement was in response to media reports about the 700 cases, which included 150 high-profile incidents.

I am not sure if Dr Fong understands the role and responsibility of CIDB and also whether CIDB understand their purpose of existence.

Secondly, I am puzzled at the committee that is set up to investigate the incidence at Plaza Damas. It seemed to consist of structural engineering design engineers. But the key problem that is involved in the incident involves the operation management of the construction activities, the mechanical engineering operation of hoisting steel moulds, clamping and locking of the craning and hoisting system, how the workers and supervisors control and monitor the craning, hoisting, fixing, removing and stacking the steel moulds. This concerns, project management, construction site operation management, tower-cranage management, safety and risk operation management of work activities and tasks. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is involved with structural engineering design.

It puzzles me - are they going to investigate the steel mould design? Are they looking into the reinforced concrete design? Are they going to check and analyse the scaffolding design and installation? What for? What the F**k for?

Primarily as I see it, the investigation should be centered on how the steel moulding operations are carried out from hoisting, installation, removal and stacking; how the safety of the work's operation were planned, monitored and controlled; and whether there any risk management - identification, quantification, response planning, risk monitoring, risk control, and workaround management? The analysis should include the methods of operation and resource competence such as the competence and control of tower-crane operation, how contractor execute and supervise their work and task operations, how they manage safety and risk, and whether the consulting engineers and architects of the project had played their professional roles of project management.

The committee should therefore include those who understand tower-crane operation, steel formwork system operation management (not design), construction management safety and health experts, mechanical engineers to analyse the hoisting and installation process for the steel moulding formwork system, project management experts in high-rise building construction, and construction-risk system managers.

At such, if the investigation committee is crowded with structural design experts, and government servants, including CIDB staffs, the presumption is that they understand nothing of contractors' operation management and process. Even those purported associated consultants of CIDB are good talkers, and none have been experienced as contractor's operation managers or had been construction site managers who had been involved in high-rise building construction management process in the role of the contractor's operation.

Unless you are been involved with the contractors in construction process and management role, it is hard for government servants irrespective whether they are ex-JKR or ex-consulting engineers, to be able to have insights to the real emphirical problem that caused such incident.

Fantasy and fallacy always prevail... I hope Tan Sri Omar truly understand and discover the profound knowledge of the contractor's operation.

Who the hell is H & I Niaga?

Questions looms loudly in the construction industry as most people are perplexed over the award of a RM320 million Bank Negara Resource Centre Project to a little unknown company who is currently facing problem of paying some levy owed to Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). An investigation conducted by NST on this company also found that they had not submitted audited accounts for 3 consecutive years from 2002 to 2004. The Company had also failed to submit its profit and loss accounts to Companies Commission of Malaysia.

The award surprised major construction companies which had been bidding for the large project, like Maju Holdings Bhd, Ahmad Zaki Resources Bhd, PECD Bhd, Ranhill Bhd and UEM Builders Bhd.

Attempts to ascertain the company’s capabilities and track record have been hampered by a lack of current information.

H & I Niaga is owned by Amerudin Ismail (2mil shares) and Ismail Mohd Hashim (3mil shares).

H & I Niaga made headlines years back when their project involving the construction of the Royal Malaysian Navy Recruit Training Centre in Kota Tinggi Johor was reported to have been defective and the building was found to have so many cracks and leakages problem. JKR and the Ministry of Defence had investigated the shoddy works and massive rectification works were carried out respectively. Nothing was further reported on this project thereafter.

H&I Niaga was also the contractor for Cheras Velodrome Project and some projects awarded by UiTM.

Bank Negara said they had evaluated the selection process and the award was based primarily on competitive pricing. How is it that Bank Negara would select a contractor who are currently facing financial problem and could not even pay CIDB levy - that's amusing! The selection process must be tainted with cronyisma and nepotisma. How could an award fo such a large project not have taken into consideration the weak financial positions of a company when the size of the project is so mammoth? Surely, if a company had not submitted its profit and loss accounts for the last three years, something must be grossly wrong? Or, alternatively, NST investigation and report was defective and grossly wrong; I doubt.

We will have to hear some explanation from H&I Niaga and most of all, Governor Zeti of Bank Negara.

H&I Niaga Hangs

Construction Contract Act - Another Fallacious Control mechanism

The Works Ministry is proposing to the Parliament to enact the Construction Contracts Act aimed at regulating the country's construction industry. The Act is targeted to ensure that those that have undertaken Government contracts do not put their private interests ahead of the nation (presumably). Samy Vellu, the minister, said he expects to deal with the matter speedily to enable the Bill to be tabled in Parliament soon.

The Act is expected to play a crucial role in laying down the basic principles of the construction contracts and is expected to address the all important issues of payment.

Apparently, this initiative originated from the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), mooted at a move towards zero-payment default through the statutory provisions. CIDB is expected to convene a separate forum to further discuss issues related to the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act.

The initiative is full of idealism and you can observed that it lack pragmatism.

Why is it so? Well, if the government is determine to ensure prompt and efficient payment system, they can do so without the need of statutory control. It is all about administrative control and system integration of the works ministry, relevant project-sponsors and financial authorities (EPU and Treasury).

If the government is looking into ways to control and monitor the private sectors payment system, then the Act will be fallacious and absurd. Private sector payment system is mulled with complexities as the payment system is inter-twained with the financial resource availability and viability, lender's support system and behaviors, investment and economic policies and barriers, and are equally subjected to market supply and demand situations and the forces that drives the economy.

On the contention by Samy Vellu and CIDB that this Act will ensure that those contractors undertaking government contracts do not put their private interests ahead of the nation, I just cannot see how the Act could provide such mechanism of control. It sounds like a chimera in the brain of the proposers. I wonder they understand what is a chimera!

The first absurdity of the proposal is that it is mooted by an institution which has over the decades failed to serve it's primary objective and mission. CIDB is by virtue, an institution that is supposed to built the system to promote and inculcate competency and capability of the contractors such that they will become competent and be able to compete and benchmark themselves with the international competitors.

What's the similarity between CIDB and Socso?

Both institution are being run using public and corporate contributions and their efficiency are second to none - none accountability, none transparency, none of them are responsible as when things go wrong, they always have someone to blame except themselves.

Both have history of abuses and incompetencies.

Over the decades, CIDB had collected billions of dollar in contributions from the contractors and so far, the records showed that their only achievement is to negotiate projects in India that had benefitted a few Class A contractors. Other than this, they had conducted several seminars and workshops for the contractors but of which these contributing contractors will still required to pay to attend those seminars.

Yet today, we are hearing of another set of initiatives that presumably is mooted to provide construction system efficiency and improvement. Would this initiative work and achieve the objectives it has set out to do? I am suffering from paranoia. If the institution had failed in its original setup, could anyone feel confident that it had the capability to turnaround others?

The key words to describe it - fallacy, preposterous, farcical, glibness, frivolous, hogwash, ignoramus, imbecile, inane, inept, klutz, ludicrous, vaxatious, pedantic and most of all, they are schleps.

New Retirement Age - Is it good news?

850,000 civil servants may have to serve an extra 3-years if the proposal is approved by the Cabinet next month.

This move was made in order to reduce the burgeoning pension bills as the government mulls over the financial implications of a pension bill that has tripled over the last decade. The pension bill had cost the government RM4.96 billion last year, a RM3.36 billion increase over the allocation in 1994. The number of pensioners are now 513,689.

Is this a good news for civil servant? Each one has to mull over it.

For me? My God, Alhamdullilah! Why? But I am not a civil servant? Oh, it doesn't matter. It was my aspiration. It was my hope. I had always been exploring into the civil service system, musing over their level of competencies, and inparticular, the recent change of hands in JKR. There was one man who, by the grace of God, was allowed to helm this giant institution after a long "waiting" and "shadow-politiking" by the oligarch. Finally, in July, the man did arrive; he is none other than, the most highly respected, but often scorned (by politicians and his past head-master) Professor Datuk Dr. Wahid bin Omar who was made the new Director-general of PWD.

Read my earlier posting (August 5, 2005).

I have been praying to the Almighty that something must happen; this new D-G is 54, and will retire in slightly more than one year time. He will not have sufficient time in this position to make the necessary changes, and have it effectively implemented, because the system will take ake him away via the compulsory retirement at 55. One year is far too short to get change effectively implemented. It will not be possible unless his term is extended. But there is no way to extend because we had a bureaucratic system.

My prayer - "May the hands of Allah and His blessings be showered on our new leader of change."

To my delight, the first thing that caught my eyes this morning is the frontpage news in NST - RETIRE AT 58! Now it is going to happen; Alhamdullilah, praise be to God!

I would like to repeat what I had already said in my earlier article:

"This man will USHER in a NEW ERA, an era of RADICAL CHANGE for the better; a change badly needed; the change that should wake up the sleeping gaint of construction industry and cause the industry to tremble. It may be a lesser range tsunami!

Many will celebrate, but some may despair, for this man will not accept mediocrity and officers with desultory character. Those flippant and insouciant, and those with purile mindset, they now have a wake-up call - this man will trumatise you!!!!

The system needs a radical change and only a visionary leader can lead this change. There is none who I believe can do better, and have such behemoth passion in his work. This man is damn honest and straight; that's the reason many had dislike him; sorry not dislike him, but dislike his courage and persistence. He has little patience for lack of competency; he loath cronyism and he doesn't know how to carry balls of the political masters. That's the reason why he can only afford to own a terrace house for the last 30 years or so. He will remain poor till he retires; tho' not poverty per se.

But I believe, he is a man satisfied and contented for what he has and what he has acieved. May God shower him with his wisdom and love, and most of all GOOD HEALTH. May the nation benefit from the service of this man's contribution and that in the next few years, we shall see a dynamic, competent and effective administration of government projects, whereby this one and only institution of construction, this JKR, will lead the nation and pave the way to achieve tangibly, the vision 2020, bringing in the structures and framework of an effective and efficient system administration, fully manned by a new breed of highly competent engineers and scientists, and setting the benchmark for all the other institutions to follow.

Hopefully, a much needed (to be) revamped CIDB will strive to emulate the feat of JKR, if not, at least perish; what we called "Die a Natural Death" so as to relieve all the contractors of the burden to contribute to the cost of the disease administration, and the contributions thus far, are sufficient to pay for the cost of an expensive coffins.

Lets observe and do some measurement; let's greet the arrival of the performance measurement system - now you can measure and track, and we can now use the six-sigma!!!!

Samy Toll: Pre-emptive Strikes

Samy Toll

SAMY CALCULATED PREEMPTIVE STRIKE

Samy: Be prepared for rise in toll charges

Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said the Government had to stop the payout as it could no longer burden itself with increasing costs. “After taking many things into consideration, the Government wants to put a stop to this practice,” he said. As such, he said, the people should be prepared for an increase in toll charges.

Samy Vellu said the Government had to pay out hundreds of millions of ringgit in compensation to the concessionaires when they asked for an increase in toll charges, as provided for in their agreements. “Based on the concessionaire agreements, a toll increase cannot be avoided when the time comes,” he added.

FIRST, he agreed to terms that was North-bound; such one-sided lucrative contracts that would create instant billionaires of which investment bankers would be willing to be bed-partners to fund these projects.

NOW, we are suffocated by the toll-haze; and the directorate is coquetting empathy.

This is the best Ventriloquism you can ever watch!!!! Let dance to the tune .....

JKR has a New DG

JKR New DG

SILENT; Unassuming & Where are all the journalist? All are hibernating, or pretend don't know?

GOOOOOOOd New! JKR has a new Director-General!!!

He is none other than the inspirational leader, Dato' Prof Ir. Dr. Wahid Bin Omar, the former deputy D-G. He was promoted, but there's no official public announcement! I happen to visit the website of JKR and to my awe, I saw a new picture as above.

We have waited for so looooong! Now it has happen! The government has finally brought in a humble, unpretentious but a visionary leader to shakeup the system - the system that manages our roads, public assets, and government development projects. This man will bring in a new era, an era of radical change for the better; a change badly needed - the change that should wake up the sleeping gaint of construction industry and cause the industry to tremble. Many will celebrate, but some may despair, for this man will not accept mediocrity and officers with desultory character. Those flippant and insouciant, and those with purile mindset, they will have a wake-up call - this man will trumatise you!!!!

The system needs a radical change and only a visionary leader can lead this change. Over the decades, we have too much political patronages and those ex-generals had a hard time making the necessary change - it's not that in the past we have weak leaders, but we have "Hand of god" at the legislative apex and middle-heaven, making directives and dictating policies and actions and these leaders seemed obedient. There was one DG who was brave but they quickly retire him the moment he touch 55.

Today, some of the higher hands had vanished while there may still be some around, but this new man is a straight and resolute person. He feared God and he will not budge for he has no fear of men. He knows his job and his competency in project management is second to none. He is a dedicated and devoted muslim - a muslim who lead by example. He is humble and he is brunt; he is often nice but he wield swords when necessary.

I can only pray to God that this new DG be blessed with longlife to serve the nation and the rakyat. I do pray that he will have sufficient time in this position to make the changes, effectively implemented, before they take him away due to compulsory retirement.

May the hands of Allah and His blessings be showered on our new leader of change

Alhamdullilah!

Johor MB: Let Us Build The Crooked Bridge

CROOKED BRIDGE

Johor has made a strong pitch to the Federal Government to go ahead and build the "crooked bridge" to replace the Causeway. State officials said that any further delay in the construction of the project would seriously retard growth in Johor Baru. This message was given to PM Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi during a briefing yesterday.

The Johor government believed that the proposed bridge was an integral part of the re-development of the city centre, and that it was crucial that a decision on the project be made soonest possible.

"Everything hinges on whether the bridge will materialise or not," said a senior state official. "We cannot wait forever for Singapore to join hands to build a straight bridge."

Singapore has not indicated if it is in favour of a straight bridge to replace the whole Causeway, despite two rounds of talks between Abdullah and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong. This uncertainty is of concern to Johor state officials, who feel the Federal Government should go ahead and build a half-bridge.

MAYBE, A CROOKED BRIDGE IS A GOOD REPRESENTATION OF OUR SYSTEM. That bridge may serve as a mirror for us, to remind us always of our cultured artistic impression!!!!