Parliament House leaks: Najib wants answers

The Straits Times, May 21, 2007

Malaysia's DPM wants to know why $40m renovation work excluded roof

KUALA LUMPUR - PARLIAMENT House, a cherished Malaysian icon, has become a national focal point for all the wrong reasons.

Deputy Premier Najib Tun Razak wants answers from the Public Works Department (PWD) as to why the building's badly-cracked and leaky concrete roof was not repaired when RM90 million (S$40 million) in renovations were carried out in 2005.

Reports yesterday quoted Datuk Seri Najib as saying: 'We will ask for an explanation in the Cabinet from the PWD...what actually happened, how the leak came about. We (the government) regret such a thing can happen.

'The expenditure to renovate the Parliament House should have taken into account problems like the leaky roof and so on.'

On May 9 , opposition MPs had complained in Parliament about the roof, after at least six leaks after heavy rain.

But at least two ruling coalition MPs brushed off the matter, and instead referred to a female opposition MP's menstrual cycle by saying that she too 'leaked once every month'. That remark made the headlines.

And yesterday, the roof leaks again made the headlines in all major Malaysian newspapers, with Works Minister Samy Vellu - PWD's boss - saying the entire roof would have to be rebuilt, waterproofed and heat-proofed.

The New Sunday Times (NST) quoted Datuk Seri Najib as saying the roof had to be repaired 'at any cost' because Parliament House was 'an important institution'.

He added that the Cabinet would decide whether the government or Parliament, which is politically independent of it, should pay for the repairs.

Last Friday, Datuk Shahrir Samad, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee which scrutinises expenditure on national infrastructure, queried Datuk Seri Samy Vellu as to why the roof was not waterproofed in 2005.

His reply? That the roof began leaking only four months ago , after a combination of incessant rain, wear-and-tear and clogged gutters and pipes.

Local media also reported that he accused Parliament's building maintenance crew of negligence, and blamed the PWD for not alerting the government to the roof leaks.

He also disagreed with Datuk Shahrir that the PWD was responsible for maintaining the building.

'Maintenance of the building had all along been under the Parliament itself, not the PWD. And when there are others carrying out maintenance, we cannot interfere. As Parliament is independent, we cannot order them around,' he said.

Still, he allowed, he would get the PWD to maintain the building once the roof was rebuilt.

The glaring maintenance blind spot is causing parliamentarians to furrow their brows, with Speaker of the House Ramli Ngah Talib pointing out the lack of any checks on the building's haphazard electrical wiring since 1964.

Yesterday, NST quoted him as saying the building might well catch fire if there was a short circuit.

The timing of these woes could not be worse for Datuk Seri Samy Vellu, coming hot on the heels of a spate of serious construction defects in spanking-new government buildings and facilities that have led Malaysians to question whether their public buildings and roads are safe to use at all.

Construction mishaps in the past month have included two collapsed ceilings, burst water pipes that flooded a building, blackouts, air-conditioning breakdowns and big cracks on the roads, as well as cement patch-ups for the walls of the new Smart traffic-cum-flood tunnel which Datuk Seri Samy Vellu opened here just last Tuesday.

The government has since ordered a specially set up committee led by the Auditor-General to inspect all public buildings thoroughly, a task which Datuk Seri Samy estimates will cost taxpayers RM22 million.

BERNAMA, ASSOCIATED PRESS, THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK