I wish to respond to the letter  “RM2 billion For Sandakan But Nothing For Skybridge” by C.P. Kui (hereinafter “the writer”) (Forum 8.9.2019). 

I can say it is definitely not true that elected reps have “gone completely silent about it”. Chan Foong Hin, MP for Kota Kinabalu had issued multiple statements (on 10 June 2018, 2 September 2018, 8 September 2018, 18 April 2019, 15 June 2019, 22 July 2019, 23 August 2019) and I can see that the unfinished (not abandoned) skybridge is one of the things which is giving him a hard time ever since he was elected.  

Chan has been going up and down government offices trying to resolve the issue, even speaking to Lim Guan Eng personally on the matter, and even had to be rebuked by the Minister as a bailout would lead to a bad precedent and lead to undue expectations by the public for government to solve abandoned projects caused by contractors’ liquidation in the future. 

In his opinion, the writer bemoans: “Come on lah. Get serious. The Sky Bridge is 95pc complete. All Petrofiq Sdn Bhd wants is to be paid what is owed to them. For how long are they supposed to wait for their money huh?”. 

The writer seems to have a bad case of selective memory. He recalls about politicians promising to resolve the issue prior to the last general elections if elected, but he had forgotten the most basic thing, and that is that the contract to build the skybridge is between Petrofiq Sdn Bhd and Sunsea Development Sdn Bhd (not the government!)

The writer had also failed miserably to mention that Sunsea Development Sdn Bhd has already been wound up after owing many creditors a lot of money. A liquidator, Mr. Augustine A/L T.K. James of Messrs. James & Co (based in Kuala Lumpur), had been appointed by an order of the High Court at Kuala Lumpur No. WA-28NCC-160-02/2018 dated 19 April 2018. 

At this stage, it is important to emphasise that the government does not owe Petrofiq Sdn Bhd a single sen as there is no privity of contract between them. 

Here, the government could easily take the writer’s suggestion to release the full contract sum of RM63,372,066.00 for the skybridge to the liquidator of Sunsea Development Sdn Bhd. However, this would NOT solve the issue as the sum is not enough to cover for the entirety of the debts that Sunsea Development Sdn Bhd had accumulated, which is over RM69 million according to the liquidator’s letter dated 10 December 2018 to UKAS.