KUCHING: For 10 years, the job of cutting the grass along 700km of federal roads was awarded to only one company, revealed state DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen in a press statement yesterday.
“This is in reference to the recent press statement of DAL HCM Sdn Bhd claiming that it had on Feb 14, 2018 signed a 10-year grass cutting contract for all federal roads in Sarawak to commence on Sep 1, 2018 until Aug 31, 2028.
“Such announcement by DAL HCM Sdn Bhd raised even more concerns and suspicions. The grass-cutting agreement was signed by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government before the 14th General Election (GE14) when there was still six months left before the previous contract expired.
“Why was the contract entered so early and so near to the general election?” he asked.
Grass-cutting, said Chong, was not a specialised job and did not require a huge capital investment.
“Many smaller and common local contractors can also do the job. The concession agreement awarded to DAL HCM Sdn Bhd covers more than 700km of federal roads in Sarawak, located in all the major cities or towns like Kuching, Sibu, Mukah, Bintulu and Miri.
“Why was one company getting the entire grass-cutting job, covering such large areas while locals were not given a chance to get the jobs directly from the government?
“Under the previous administration, huge government concession agreements jobs were awarded to one or two companies. These were the monopoly policies of the past which should be put to a stop,” he said.
