Documents prove George Kent lied, says Rafizi

PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli has refuted construction company George Kent's claim that its joint venture with Lion Pacific had not failed competency tests for the Ampang Line LRT extension project.

A Jan 20 letter from project owner Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (Prasarana) managing director Shahril Mokhtar clearly states that the George Kent consortium had "failed in the financial evaluation", Rafizi said in a statement today.
The George Kent consortium also includes international companies Wijet and Thales.

The letter, of which a copy was attached to Rafizi's statement, specifically notes that the George Kent-Lion Pacific joint venture had "failed in the evaluation, be it technical or financial".

"The bid evaluation found that George Kent did not meet the contract requirements," Rafizi said.
“The lie that George Kent passed all evaluations and fulfilled all requirements is an insult to the country's procurement procedures and shows that these procedures do not accord any respect to the bidders.”

Yesterday, George Kent executive director Cheong Thiam Fook said the George Kent-Lion Pacific joint venture won the close to RM1 billion LRT extension contract because of its experience.

Cheong denied the group had failed competency tests and stressed that it had recently successfully delivered the construction of a RM100 million project in Kuala Lipis.

According to Rafizi, the letter from the Prasarana boss to the Finance Ministry also noted that the George Kent consortium had obtained only 8.7 points out of 30 on its financial evaluation.

He said a report by engineering consultant Halcrow, purported copies of which were also given to media, showed that the George Kent consortium scored 38.62 out of 70 on its technical evaluation.

“This places the consortium as the third poorest scorer in terms of technical evaluation. In fact, in its full report, Halcrow stated clearly that the George Kent consortium is incapable of doing the project,” Rafizi said.

George Kent invincible?

The revelation of these documents, he said, has landed him under investigation under the Official Secrets Act.

The fact that George Kent could make such a public statement about its capability despite Prasarana's evaluation, he added, raised doubts over whether Prasarana could ensure that the contractor delivered on the project.

“Works have not even begun and George Kent arrogantly lied  about the results of the bid as presented by Prasarana to the Finance Ministry,” Rafizi said.

“I am certain that this arrogance comes from the fact that the company is supported by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. George Kent knows it is invincible...”

Rafizi had earlier claimed that Najib had intervened in the bidding process to favour George Kent.

He also described George Kent's chairperson Tan Kay Hock as Najib's “golf buddy”.

Meanwhile, responding late today, George Kent said that it cannot comment on purported official documents on the technical and financial evaluations as it is not privy to them. 

Its executive director Cheong Thiam Fook in a brief statement said that the company stands by its view that it can successfully deliver the project. 

“(George Kent) would like to emphasise that it is now fully focused on delivering the project for the Malaysian public in accordance with the levels of governance and transparency expected of a public-listed company.”