by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Saturday, July 31, 1993;
Penang Port Commission will become a world laughing stock next year when its new RM300 million North Butterworth Container Terminal is completed but it would not be able to be used for a year because it would have no gantry cranes
The Penang Port Commission will become a laughing stock in the world next year when its new RM300 million North Butterworth Container Terminal is completed but it would not be able to be operational for a year because it would have no gantry cranes.
I raised this issue in Parliament during the debate on the 1993 Supplementary Estimates in Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday, as the cause for this extraordinary delay was because of the tender for three container gantry cranes for North Butterworth Terminal.
I had called for an explanation from the Finance Ministry as to why it overruled the three appeals submitted by the Penang Port Commission and was awarding the contract for three container gantry cranes for North Butterworth Container Terminal to GEC (Malaysia) when its tender did not meet the specifications of the tender.
As I said in Parliament, last Tuesday, tender for three units of Container Gantry Cranes for North Butterworth Container Terminal Project was called on 1st September 1991 and closed on 31st October 1991.
GEC (Malaysia) was one of tenders but it had not complied with the condition that a tenderer must have a previous track record in the design and construction of the Container Gantry Cranes required for the North Butterworth Container Terminal Project.
According to the reply of the Deputy Finance Minister, Datuk Ghani Othman on Thursday, the Penang Port Commission Tender Board recommended the tender submitted by Intan Karang Sdn. Bhd. with the price of RM30,358,320. However, the Finance Ministry decided to award the tender to GEC (Malaysia) Bhd. at the price of RM32,182,296 CIF.
Ghani Ottoman said that the decision of the Finance Ministry to award the tender to GEC (Malaysia) was based on ‘lowest evaluated1 and ‘acceptable tender”, and that, the decision of the Finance Ministry was forwarded to the Penang Port Commission on 11th September 1992.
If we look at the ports of Malaysia, we can find such renowned brands being used like Samsung, Hyundai, Mitsubishi and lately Impsa from Argentina.
Impsa, one of the tenderer’s for the PPC container gantry cranes, had built cranes in China and elsewhere, is a genuine crane builder, and the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, had visited the Impsa’s factory in Argentina.
PPC would become the scapegoat, if the government is to proceed with the tender award to GEC (Malaysia). PPC is expected to corporatize and later privatize and they are buying cranes from their own funds. Why can’t PPC be allowed to choose what they want?
The life span of a gantry crane is 15 to 20 years. With the launching of the North Butterworth Container Terminal, Penang is expected to play a very important role in terms of containerisation within the Northern Triangle. The equipment must be able to perform efficiently with minimum downtime operation. The image of the port is very essential.
The Ministry of Finance had allowed extraneous factors to affect its decision, ignoring the important key issue of boosting the trade performance of the Penang island state.
The Government must re-examine immediately the tender exercise and recall the tender altogether.