KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 7): Malaysia’s Public Works Department has 33 projects classified as sick projects as at Sept 30, with most attributed to weaknesses in contractors’ management.
An analysis of the sick projects found that 77% were caused by ineffective planning and coordination of site works, insufficient manpower, and poor management of machinery and material supplies, Deputy Works Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan told the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday.
The Works Ministry and the department, better known by its Malay acronym JKR, have set up a cross-agency committee that meets monthly to monitor and coordinate mitigation measures for the sick projects, he said.
The troubled projects are a fraction of the 875 projects supervised by JKR at the construction stage with a combined contract value of RM40.7 billion.
To strengthen government works procurement, Ahmad said the Ministry of Finance has approved several JKR initiatives, including revising the price range or cut-off point for tender evaluations.
JKR has been allowed to pilot a revised method, under which tenders priced within plus-minus 10% of the builder’s work adjusted mean will be evaluated until Dec 31, 2027, or until the Government Procurement Act comes into force, whichever comes first.
Under the existing method, tenders priced within a range of -15% to +10% of the adjusted mean are evaluated. The revised method is intended to identify tenderers offering prices closest to prevailing market prices for government projects, he noted.
Another initiative involves the certification of copies of companies’ financial statements. Ahmad said the finance ministry has agreed that certified true copies of companies’ financial statements can be certified by either an individual auditor or an audit firm.
Submission requirements for ongoing work and work performance forms for JKR projects will also be improved. Under the existing rules, tenderers are required to declare all ongoing projects and submit their current work performance reports when submitting a tender.
Ahmad said the Ministry of Finance has allowed projects under JKR that are registered under the digital Control and Reporting System to be exempted from submitting these forms.
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