Solid waste management or sordid waste management?

 Despite a lot of hard selling by the deputy prime minister in the Sun and the NST today, I am still skeptical that we tax and rate payers will be getting a rakyat  diutamakan deal out of the 22 years concession granted to Alam Flora Sdn Bhd, SWM Environment Sdn Bhd and Environment Idaman Sdn Bhd pertaining to waste management.

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/149079

http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/3wstt-2/Article/

Tan Sri Sabaruddin Chik, an ex-cabinet minister, sits on the board of SWM Environment Sdn Bhd; Alam Flora Sdn Bhd* is owned by DRB-HICOM while Environment Idaman Sdn Bhd is a JV Company between Metacorp Berhad and UEM Environment Sdn. Bhd. The impression of strong links to BN administration past and present is impossible to shake off.

For instance, via Environment Idaman Sdn Bhd, Metacorp Berhad will now be milking off from 1 more public service, i.e. on top of the existing highway toll concession it is enjoying.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur_%E2%80%93_Seremban_Expressway

The Kuala Lumpur – Seremban Expressway  is a main expressway in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This 8 km (4.9 miles) expressway linking Kuala Lumpur in the north to Seremban, Negeri Sembilan in the south.

….. this particular stretch of road is not managed by PLUS Expressway Berhad, but rather by Metramac Corporation (MetaCorp) - consequently the toll rate at Sungai Besi toll plaza includes an extra payment to cover the Kuala Lumpur-Seremban Expressway.

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The 3 concessionaires can take the agreement and nice newspaper cutting to get bank loans to finance their operations; hence interest expense/income to bankers will be another layer added onto what we pay for another public service.

What is more laughable is this remarkable and customary self contradiction, extracted in the Sun:

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung said, however, that the privatisation of solid waste management under the Solid Waste and Urban Cleansing Management Act 2007 that came into effect on Sept 1, will not incur additional charges for consumers

He said assessment collected by local councils would also not be raised. “The rates paid by the people to local councils will be the same and there will be no additional charges. Any extra charge will be borne by the government,” he said during the signing of the agreements

Dear minister, isn’t the government funded by tax payers? Do we not pay for the ever skyrocketing national debts and budget deficits? It is just a question of whether our right pocket or left pocket is being hit. Whatever festival discounts given by super normal profits earning highway concessionaires are compensated according to the lopsided day light robbery toll concession agreements anyway.

One cannot rely on the same line to pick up a girl in the same bar all the time, I was once told.

Can the minister please disclose to the public the terms and conditions in the 22 years agreement concerning the “extra charges”?

The connected private companies need to make profits otherwise not required by public institutions. The extra charges would  probably mean interest to banks, directors’ remuneration, more flashy branding expenditure, dividends required by shareholders, retained profits in the company, plus income tax levied on the profits of the company – all these to be paid for by the RM8 per month, and perhaps also some back door compensation not made known in the press report.

To add salt into injury,

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said through the concession agreements, the government hoped the effectiveness of solid waste collection services will improve in terms of quality and regularity.

The DPM is indirectly saying that the local authorities run by BN are incompetent and inferior hence confirming the incompetent culture cultivated by successive BN administration, and quality service could only be available to tax and rates payers at a higher price.

Instead of being castigated for unsatisfactory performances, the underperforming civil servants are perhaps be elevated to “pihak pemantau yang berkuasa”, and in a position to listen to the pleas, excuses and perhaps more, from the concessionaires. Did the BN administration just add on another level of bureaucracy and another space for “direct discretionary negotiations” between little Napoleons and private entities?

For MPs and ADUNs, it would be more work. Previously, upon the complains by residents, the YBs may need to forward their complaints to the relevant local authorities but now, perhaps the YBs have to communicate and follow up with the local authorities plus the concessionaires.

The DPM did not say whether there would be cost savings for the benefit of tax and rates payers via reduction of civil servants no longer carrying on the work. We should see some benefits to us because the argument for privatization is reduction of cost and improvement of quality.

Why not focus on efficiency and effectiveness of civil servants, rather than keeping them while outsourcing public services to profit seeking connected private companies? I am waiting for the day to see if there is a “Syarikat Perkhidmatan Polis Malaysia Sdn Bhd” or “Sarekat Perkhidmatan Angkatan Tentera Malaysia Sdn Bhd” with a 50 years concession or something like that to boot.

As recently as April this year, the Pakatan Rakyat administration of Selangor went the exact opposition direction – curtailing the role of private companies and save cost.

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http://www.mmail.com.my/content/69777-alam-flora-cleaning-contract-terminated

Local councils take over in Selangor with immediate effect

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From the above, I can see alternative way of running this country and I can also see a consistent trend of better cost management among the Pakatan Rakyat administered states namely Penang, Selangor and until a tragic and most unjust end, Perak. So voters, in exchange for a few months of pre-GE goodies, brace yourselves for a 22 years tie down.

*Ownership of Alam Flora Sdn Bhd

http://announcements.bursamalaysia.com/EDMS%5Cedmsweb.nsf/LsvAllByID/F8E634B118A9429248257910003BEF32?OpenDocument

Notice the Pahang State Government is a shareholder? Now why does a state government seek to profit from the rakyat?