Why not perah the MBs?

What would be the end game for the whole 1MDB fiasco?

The company’s grossly indebted with iffy revenue generator to service this debt.

Muhyiddin has asked for the Board to be sacked. And then what?

Everything would be fine and dandy?

No, Sir. The debt is still hanging over us.

Yes, US. EPF’s in it. So is KWAP. The government has apparently guaranteed everything good and sundry it seems.

Maybe, maybe not.

And yes, supposedly 1MDB assets (paper valuations notwithstanding) is enough to cover the debt.

All hunky dory? The BIG IF is in who 1MDB can offload these assets to.

The “missing billions” factor is the cruncher as this overloads the debt content by having no tangible, umm, collateral to the money pumped in.

To make 1MDB “work”, there is really no choice but to plug these leakages and proceed with the plans it already has in place.

It needs to be sincere in implementing these to the point of being a hermit.

The Board should be worked for free. Basic allowance of nasi lemak and teh tarik ONLY for their meetings and no others. Ikan bilis only. No sambal kerang or jackshit.

Consultants should be discarded. All consultancy worked should be inhouse. Have to do OT without being paid? TOUGH.

Former banker should use his expertise in ensuring all monies are accounted for. And yes, he should also be paid peanuts. Nasi lemak and teh tarik during meetings the only perk he gets.

Najib? He should just cut himself out of 1MDB. His being in the loop corrupts everything by short circuiting governance.

He can have his nasi lemak and teh tarik elsewhere.

Perhaps this could turned 1MDB around.

It would be take bloody many years to pay all its debts, but hey, us layman has been there before.

Lets perah all the MBs for all their smugness while the nation worries.

That would just, I think.

In the meantime, here's to hoping that Nur Jazlan and his merry men (and women) of the PAC do a good job in finding the ones we (as a nation) have perah the hardest.

Cloakie Daggerie

The plot sure thickens over the RM965m George Kent-Lion Pacific Ampang LRT systems work job award.

Allegations of interference in the selection process has yet to die a silent death only for news that the British Engineering firm appointed as independent evaluator ofthe eight bidders  is under probe by theMACC.

BTW, whatever did happen to your TRIO in the Teoh Beng Hock’s case, MACC?

Back to Halcrow: reading the news article with nada a byline in the Star Online seems to suggest a link existing between the firm and Balfour Beatty, one of the firms in the list of JVs tendering for the job, citing several previous jobs.

Among others: "A search of both companies revealed that directors and top officials of both Halcrow and Balfour Beatty had positions in joint-venture companies established by both companies to bid for the Hounslow Highways PFI contract in the UK. It did not win that bid."

Uh oh. Serious casting of aspersions on the impartiality of the firm in question this article does.

Not sure how these adhoc JVs work, but surely someone somewhere from the list of bidders would have rung alarm  bells early on during the pre-awarding disclosure or not?

After all, some of the link ups of the two firms are Google-able public domain material.

Didn’t Syarikat Prasarana Berhad – Halcrow’s employer - know of the  “relationship”?

Question Time: If the evaluation process is flawed vis a vis this, ahem, newfound discovery, does it then make the whole process invalid?

Should there be a second round of evaluation to ensure the JV offering the best value for a publicly funded project is chosen?

Then again, a reported 15 months had lapse from the closing of the tender and its eventual award just recently. So probably not gonna happen.

Balfour Beatty’s JV – according to unconfirmed reports – had placed the lowest bid.

An article in the Edge – which I can’t seem to trace but which was picked up by The Malaysian Insider – meanwhile quoted industry sources as speculating that the winning JV will more likely subcontract out a major portion of the works in question.

From The Malaysian Insider: According to The Edge, George Kent even approached Balfour-Beatty tobecome one of the subcontractors but industry executives claimed the UK-basedconsortium had spurned the offer.

Sure boggles the mind, doesn’t it all…

Welcome to the wonderful world of the mega contracts where the risks and the profits are equally mega in size.

Very  Cloak and Dagger-ish, eh?