Putrajaya pays up RM137m sought by Dhaya Maju LTAT after KVDT2 contract termination

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 23): Putrajaya has paid up a sum of RM137.5 million claimed by Dhaya Maju LTAT Sdn Bhd (DM-LTAT), the terminated contractor for the Klang Valley Double Tracking Phase 2 (KVDT2) project, a government lawyer said today.

“The government has paid the amount owed, as I understand, yesterday. A sum of RM137.5 million,” senior federal counsel Asliza Ali told theedgemarkets.com when contacted.

“As such, their [DM-LTAT’s] application to enter judgment which was due today has been struck out,” said Asliza, who is also the head of the Government Contract and Medical Negligence Unit at the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

Today had been fixed for hearing of the DM-LTAT's application before High Court judge Datuk Aliza Sulaiman.

The KVDT2 contractor had last month applied to the High Court to enter judgment against the Malaysian government and Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong for terminating its contract and owing the firm about RM137 million.

Wee had said in August that the government will reopen the tender for the project after taking into consideration the results of an extensive study and investigation on the project’s cost.

Wee had said the open tender would be in the interest of optimising the use of public funds for large-scale infrastructure projects.

"This (Perikatan Nasional) government has closely scrutinised the viability of such projects to gain the best value for the country. For this reason, I wish to announce that the contract for the KVDT2 project will be reopened for tender, to which the Cabinet had agreed,” Wee had said.

Wee had been involved in a spat over this issue with his predecessor Anthony Loke on the matter.

Citing an affidavit by Datuk Mohamed Razeek Hussain Maricar, Loke had claimed in the Dewan Rakyat on Nov 17 that Wee had asked the company to subcontract the project to a firm from China — instead of carrying it out themselves. Wee, however, strongly denied the claim

Mohamed Razeek is the CEO of Dhaya Maju Infrastructure (Asia) Sdn Bhd, which owns 80% of DM-LTAT.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan had earlier told Parliament that the government was trying to reach an out-of-court settlement with DM-LTAT.

DM-LTAT had filed its suit on Sept 7, naming the government and Wee as defendants, in a bid to stop Putrajaya's bid to terminate their contract.

However, the company failed to gain an injunction to stop the government when Justice Aliza ruled that the court cannot bar or impose any injunction against the government or its public officers from performing their duties.

Following that, the government terminated DM-LTAT's contract on Sept 24.

DM-LTAT had also filed a judicial review in September to challenge the KVDT2 tender reopening. The company named the government and Wee as defendants in this application too.

DM-LTAT also filed another suit on Oct 27, naming Wee, the government, Opus Consultants (M) Sdn Bhd and Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) as defendants. It managed to obtain an interim injunction on Nov 2, barring all defendants from accessing the KVDT project worksite.

However, the order was varied on Dec 10, when High Court judge Datuk Lim Chong Fong allowed a variation of his earlier order in allowing the government and KTMB limited access to conduct maintenance and repair works.

theedgemarkets.com is awaiting a response from Mohamed Razeek on this latest development.

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