MAKE Big Money Sdn Bhd (MBM), as the name suggests, wants to make mega bucks. Its shareholders have little to invest, but they have "connections". They prepare a "working paper" to be submitted to the government. They want to build bungalows which would be subsequently leased to the government for 30 years. The company doesn’t have the land or the money. The government acquires the land and provides a loan so that the bungalows can be built. So, how can MBM not succeed? Everything is served on a platter and there’s a ready taker when the bungalows are handed over. In the event MBM loses in this venture, the government will compensate the company!
This in a nutshell describes one of the many toll concessions that have been entered into by the government. For long, these concessions had been kept under wraps, for reasons better known to the powers that be. But with the declassification of the documents, it is now public knowledge that some of them were lopsided deals. How and why did the government enter into such deals? No one can answer these questions except the people who were tasked with the responsibility.
How could the government take the financial risks to pay for all costs? Besides, why did it undertake to guarantee concessionaires profits and indemnify them from losses and even ensured the profits?
It is interesting to note that former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was quoted in theSun (Jan 9, 2007), as saying: "What you have is a cabinet which is not very knowledgeable all the time because it is not made up of experts but politicians (and) some politicians like myself can sometimes be stupid. The cabinet merely gave approvals in principle and never really studied the implications in some parts of the agreements."
Full story in The Sun
This in a nutshell describes one of the many toll concessions that have been entered into by the government. For long, these concessions had been kept under wraps, for reasons better known to the powers that be. But with the declassification of the documents, it is now public knowledge that some of them were lopsided deals. How and why did the government enter into such deals? No one can answer these questions except the people who were tasked with the responsibility.
How could the government take the financial risks to pay for all costs? Besides, why did it undertake to guarantee concessionaires profits and indemnify them from losses and even ensured the profits?
It is interesting to note that former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was quoted in theSun (Jan 9, 2007), as saying: "What you have is a cabinet which is not very knowledgeable all the time because it is not made up of experts but politicians (and) some politicians like myself can sometimes be stupid. The cabinet merely gave approvals in principle and never really studied the implications in some parts of the agreements."
Full story in The Sun
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