War of words in Selangor water saga

by **Cals** Thu 03 Apr 2014, 08:04

[size=33]War of words in Selangor water saga[/size]

Posted on 3 April 2014 - 05:37am

Rupinder Singh
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[size=14]PETALING JAYA: The ongoing Selangor water saga is turning into a war of words, with the Pakatan Rakyat water panel calling Gamuda Bhd's Datuk Lin Yun Ling "hypocritical" and "disgraceful" for questioning the federal government's right to invoke Section 114 of the Water Services Industry Act 2006 (Wasia) to take over Selangor's water operations.

The panel namely DAP's Tony Pua, PKR's Rafizi Ramli and PAS's Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad in a joint statement singled out Lin for his comments, saying he was in no position to preach about "the sanctity of contracts".

Both Tan Sri Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah and Lin in an interview with a financial weekly questioned the invocation of Wasia by the federal government.

While Wan Azmi questioned the need for Wasia to be invoked, Lin likened it to an "asset grab".

"If you try to do it by the force of Wasia and make us take an unreasonable price, then I call it an "asset grab", Lin had been quoted as saying.

"It is completely hypocritical for Lin to preach "the sanctity of contracts" when in the water concessionaire contracts which Gamuda's subsidiary, Syarikat Pengeluar Air Selangor Holdings (Splash) willingly signed, there were clear terms set out for the purposes of terminating the concession and buy back by the Federal and/or state governments," it said.

The panel pointed out that the terms of the concession agreements were very clear where in the event of terminating the concession, the government will have to compensate the concessionaire by acquiring the value of the water assets under the concession, as well as to ensure that the concessionaire will receive a minimum return of 12% per annum for the previous years of operations.

"The government is not even legally obliged to take over the loans which have been undertaken by the concessionaires, as the federal government has done for Splash," it said. They claimed that Lin was refusing to abide by the contract which his company has signed "gleefully"because he wants unreasonable returns for his shareholders.

The panel also claimed that Gamuda is using its current ownership of the concession which treats vital water to be provided for Selangor residents, to extort a more lucrative offer from the state government.

They also pointed out that when Wasia was passed in 2006, Gamuda or Splash had no objection to it.

"Hence, Datuk Lin isn't only refusing to honour the sanctity of the concession contracts, he wants to defy the law which was drafted by the Barisan Nasional government in consultation with the privatised water industry players," it said.
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