What Happened to those Collapsing Computer Labs?

Our Works Minister claims that bridges cannot collapse but history proves that any man-made structure can do just that. This letter to the press was written a few years ago but was never published.

The computer labs misconstruction fiasco shows how the privatisation procedures or the lack of them have caused not only a massive wastage of taxpayers funds but it placed thousands of young school-children in danger of injury and even death by occupying buildings that are of unsound construction.

No doubt the main contractors and the government appointed consultant are the main cause of this disgraceful “piratisation” but the ministry involved cannot just blame them completely without taking some share for not making sure that qualified people were given the contracts.

The ministry cannot wash its hands and claim it has the status of a “house owner” when it is actually the trustee of the taxpayers and taxpayers are the ones who should decide if the trustee deserved such trust. It is a basic management principle – If one has authority, one also bears responsibility.

It is all too easy to just claim everything is a Cabinet decision and indeed it is a dangerous practice. Even though matters are discussed at Cabinet level, it is up to the minister involved to make sure that a major fiasco like this stops at the ministry level or we will have situations perhaps once every 2 months when we should ask the Cabinet to resign for major blunders.

We should require that someone of adequate importance in the appropriate department responsible for such projects resign so that more competent staff can look after taxpayers’ monies. It will also give a strong and clear signal that the government is serious about improving the quality of the civil service

On examining the details published in the Sunday Times feature “Disastrous start for computer project”, the following features are quite interesting.

The Finance Ministry was in charge of Phase 1 and awarded 3 contracts on June 21 2000 and another 3 on Oct 3 2000.

A contract awarded on Oct3 2000 for Sabah was 45% higher per unit than the lowest contract. The lowest contractor for Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor was terminated and replaced by their own subcontractors and “good progress now reported”.

Why were different dates chosen for the award of the contracts? This allows contractors to take advantage of price information and price manipulation – this is one area where corruption can easily occur.

The other contracts awarded in June 2000 had price variations of 4%, 11% and 15% above the cheapest contractor. The 15% increase in price was for Selangor and FT which is surprising as there should be many builders available here.

A public inquiry should be held to discover how government procedures and especially directives from the Cabinet are executed so that a major blunder like this does not recur. Once again, our MPs do not appear to have a collective voice and except for one MP from Tampin, the rest are clueless or just do not give a damn.

The ACA should not just check the goings on in the way the projects were implemented. Given that the computer labs were standard items of construction of simple buildings and outfitting with computers, it should check the working papers in the Finance Ministry on how the project prices were approved, especially on how the contract in Sabah was enriched by an extra 45% margin. This is not rocket science.

Just imagine if someone decides tomorrow that we should use nuclear energy by 2005 and gives out a contract to some unknown C contractor – well, this sad episode shows that in Bolehland, that is quite possible. Before we develop into a knowledge-based economy, we must develop some basic management skills which this episode proves are terribly lacking.

Too many government departments have a glorified ISO policy manifest but the computer lab fiasco shows that it is merely for show – all form and no substance.

To prevent further such embarrassing and wasteful projects, all government contracts should have transparent tender and implementation procedures.

photo: South Australia. Nature's bridge takes thousands of years to collapse, man-made ones takes just a few years.