Ipoh City Council tenders controlled by big contractors, association alleges

IPOH: The Perak branch of the Malaysian Malay Contractors Association (PKMM) on Wednesday, May 11 alleged that "big contractors" are having control over tender awards by the Ipoh City Council.

Its president Datuk Wira Jamaluddin Abdul Rahim said this resulted in the Malay contractors having to hand over their licences to the contractors concerned in order to secure work from the council.  

"Information received from members of the association show that they had never won any tender or quotation from the Ipoh City Council, not until they hand over their licences to the big contractors concerned.

"Their companies only get contracts after they surrender their licences and only paid consolation for the projects secured," he told Bernama here on Wednesday.

Jamaluddin was commenting on the warning issued by the Ipoh Mayor Datuk Roshidi Hashim, on Tuesday that the city council would blacklist those contractors who sold the contracts awarded to them by the council.

Roshidi was quoted as saying that the blacklisted contractors would be reported to the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).

In response to the statement, Jamaluddin said instead of blacklisting the contractors, the council should focus on the "big contractors" which controlled the Ipoh City Council resulting in the bumiputra contractors' failure to get any project.

He said the matter had been happening for a long time and the council must take appropriate action and believed it happened due to lack of supervision by the higher authorities. — Bernama