Parliament leaks again: Kangtau again!

Good news to consultants and contractors!

"Parliament leaks again."

RM100 million spent on renovation and another RM20 million was spent to engage consultants to submit proposals to rectify the roof leaks and waterproofing system. And all these did not include the waterproofing specialists and rooftop works.

Now, we have another leak; or should we observe as another kangtau, an opportunity for a consulting engineer to submit proposals to rectify the defects and hopefully the cost should be slightly less than RM20 million.

Then we should have the contractors to negotiate "secara rundingan terus" with another budgeted cost of some RM100 million.

It was only two weeks ago when we read an assurance from current Minister of Works who was the former Deputy to Samy Vellu, Mohd Zin Mohamed's that "Parliament would not leak again".

Water dripped from the ceiling at the Parliament lobby, near House speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia's office, this afternoon at around 5pm following a one-hour heavy rain.

Shortly after the leaks were detected, Mohd Zin and Public Works Department deputy director-general PN Selvanayagam paid a visit to the Parliament and inspected the roof.

According to Mohd Zin, the incident was not due to the roof leaking but the air-condition system.

"The rain water flooded the down-water pipe causing the backflow leak through the air condition duct," the minister told reporters at the lobby.

I wonder Mohd Zin and Selvanayagam both knows what they are talking about. What the fuck is" ... rain water flooding the down-water pipe causing backflow through the air-con system ..." Talk to any M&E Engineer and civil engineers, they'll get perplexed and blur-blur. Rain water outlet is the RWDP (rain-water down pipe) and if the RWDP is blocked the water will overflow the roof top and will not backflow through the aircon-system.

Why is it that we cannot have works minister who understands construction and engineerings and pengarahs in JKR who cannot advice the minister correctly? Is there something wrong with JKR or is it the ministry itself? The ministry and JKR should be ashame.

Minister with Bullock Cart Mentality?

Datuk Shahrir Samad said:

[Quote]

"Our culture is not one of conservation, but one of building, building, building, and worrying about problems later."

"We have three problems - Money, Money, Money.

The minister said he needs RM12 million to repair the roof... how can he say it's RM12 million? Why can't it be RM30 million?

We don't know how he get the estimate, that's why we are wondering how the minister made the estimate that he require RM20 million just to do a study on the buildings in Putrajaya."

"Nobody knew from where the minister got the figure. The public looks at it as a joke. They laugh.

"How can you talk about millions of dollars everytime there is a problem, as though nothing has been done before."

"When you design a building do you mean there are no plans? No provisions for maintenance?"

[Unquote]

Sorry Shahrir, our ministry do estimate but they use analogous estimate and ball-park estimates. They had to include payouts for political contributions and patronages. They had to take care of some people. UMNO needs building funds; UMNO leaders need financial contributions; 4th Floor needs consultancy fees; Samy also need help. Many more of the aspiring political leaders need help. The estimates have to include contingency funds and provisional items. There is also a need to play safe, to include all other risks contingencies and probabilities. In politics, they need a lot of money to sustain the cronies. We have to accept the facts. It is vivid and real. It is called Malaysia Boleh. We also have to consider the cost of sending some people to Mars. The cost to the moon is settled but Mars is much far away and more costly. Please bear with us.

Samy: Rain cause Parliament Leaks

Samy: Heavy rains contributing to Parliament House roof leak

Heavy rainfall has contributed to the leakage from the roof of Parliament House but some critics don't want to accept it, Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said.

He said the critics, who sit in the office, don't realise that the rain pattern has changed throughout the world.

"Even in England and United States, there has been floods after a heavy downpour," he told reporters.

Samy Vellu said the government has approved RM12 million to undertake a review of the Parliament House, constructed 50 years ago, and propose the necessary repairs.

"Of the RM12 mil, RM4 mil would be used for the review while the remaining RM8 mil would be used for immediate repairs," he said.

"There has also been no proper maintenance of the water outlets as there were plants as well as rubbish clogging them, causing the water to flow out elsewhere," Samy said.

I really love Samy. He always talks sense...common sense which is so uncommon and often becomes non... sense.

$12mil budget allocation; $4mil paid to consultant to prepare a report which tells him why the roof leaks and how to repair. If you get a contractor and asked him to submit a proposal for the repair works which includes a warranty and guarantee against any defects, any contractor would be extremely pleased to forward a proposal free of charge. The cost for repair would still remain as $8mil inclusive of the proposal and warranty and guarantee. So, who makes the $4m???

Leakage caused by rain? Surely; what else who have caused a roof leak?

Samy said Parliament house was not being maintained and there were plants and garbages in the roof. But there is a maintenance team comprising of a JKR engineer and technicians, and include a maintenance service contractor who was awarded a 5-year Service Level Agreement, renewable??? Can JKR explain this!!!!!!

CIDB: Taking Responsibility Insensibly

The Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) is the Institution that was enacted by the legislature to promote the standards and quality of construction management and to built the framework of the construction industry best practices. This objectives could never be realized.

Firstly, the institution is more interested in generating revenue and tapping into the system to extract surplus wealth; if there ain't surplus, the extract whatever profits it could. They organize seminars for participants from the industry players but charged them for a fee. They oganized seminars and workshops for companies interested to be ISO9000 certified and charged them for a fee. They organized fee-based project management courses and are preparing a system to accredit project managers but they themselves and whoever their accreditors are, have yet to get themselves accredited by any respectable or recognized institution such as PMI or APM.

They organized all kinds of events, workshops and seminars for the industry players and charged them with fees. Yet the construction companies had to pay a levy of 0.25% for every project the had, whether private or public sector projects. Each year, there are more than RM30 billion worth of projects; so you can calculate what their income from levy is. So apart from hundreds of millions of levy collected, there are other income such as workers registration, certification and event management. Oh, and they need not publicly publish their accounts as this is provided for under the statute.

And there are bunches of "super professionals consultants" within the penumbra of the system who help promote these wealth generating activities; they call it win-win and of course the ultimate is who is paying?

They talk about globalisation and internationalisation, but we have pragmatic problem - defects and maintenance, slope failures, abandoned projects, the lack of competencies in project management and construction process management, poor quality culture and systems, etc, etc. Take the most recent issues of defects and maintenance failures - Putrajaya Immigration Complex, New Jalan Duta Court Complex, Putrajaya slope collapse, and those much earlier project failures such as MRR2, Computer Labs, Kuching Prison projects, Wetland projects, etc etc.

The ministry said they are preparing and are now in the process of drawing up a Building Maintenance Framework. What? Does it mean that over the decades JKR and the government had never operated defects and maintenance management using with a formalised framework? But they are ISO 9000 certified companies - JKR is ISO certified and Putrajaya is also ISO certified!

I had blog on numerous occasions about the Building Maintenance Framework and if they didn't understand, why didn't they ask me?

More surprising is the fact that CIDB is only involve in collections of monies and had nothing to contribute towards the government's and the industries need of such a framework. And they are shouting so much about globalization and internationalization of the Malaysian construction industry.

CIDB CEO Datuk Hamzah is the former CEO of Ahamd Zaki Resources Bhd, a class A contractor, and Tan Sri Wan Rahman who is now the chairman of CIDB was the former Director-General of JKR. Tan Sri Omar, another former D-G of JKR is also the director of CIDB. All of them are experts in the construction industry. What are they doing there? I won't dare to say they did nothing or contribute nothing (this is contempt) but it's about the forest and the trees - which is which? With due respect to them, particularly for the fact that I had admired them over the years, I just felt ashame that the industry is rotting and CIDB is docile and in a state of inertia.

The Architect or A chi Tech nician?

Barely 2 years after spending RM90 million to renovate Parliament House, Samy now says he needs more money to dismantle the structure and repair the roof.

“As an architect I can tell you that the present condition is severe. We must dismantle the whole structure and build it again with waterproofing equipment,” Samy Vellu was reported to have said (NST front page news)

I have been in the construction industry for decades and I have never heard nor able to contemplate why Samy had to dismantle the whole roof structure just to repair leakages.

All that was needed is to remove the current roof screed, clean off those debris, pressure grout the concrete around those areas that are porous, then install new waterproofing membrane and then lay a new topping of cement screed. That shouldn't cost more than RM1 million and I am prepared to take the job to do this waterproofing works at RM1 million.

Secondly, I have never heard of any builders who need to install waterproofing equipment. It is either waterproofing cementatious compound or bituminous membrane. At a higher range it can be polyethylene waterproofing membrane. What is that waterproofing equipment? I have never heard of?

And he said he is architect? Doesn't architect knows about waterproofing and waterproofing materials, not equipment????

Samy's New Fortune in times of Calamity

The Immigration department in Putrajaya triggered the maintenance management review. Then the new Court Complex in Jalan Duta inflamed it.

So, coupled with various other building maintenance and defects problems, the Cabinet had set up a committee to look into the maintenance management framework and to get PWD to take full control of the monitoring and inspection of all government buildings and projects.

A committee headed by Auditor-General Ambrin Buang consisting mainly of JKR engineers was tasked to conduct a study and the time frame is 6 months, to come up with a proposal to rectify the system weakness.


Samy was extremely delighted as he is the boss of JKR. Samy announced after the post cabinet meeting yesterday that the study would cost RM22 million.

$22million just to conduct a study? Fantastic! Who is the consultant appointed to assist JKR and the committee? Somebody becomes a millionaire overnight?

I am amazed by Samy's budget and of course bemused too. In BolehLand, you have so much opportunities to become rich without the need for competency and expertise. All that was needed is a crisis that would trigger a survey and ultimately a report of the problem.

Then, when the proposal fail to address the problem, a new committee will be set up to review the failed proposal and come up with another new proposal, and would cost double... and the cycle repeats.

The next years race, the Malaysian team lost by a further two miles.

A new committee will have to be set up and the proposal would be to get another new rover. The consultants will have to be paid another $22mil for the report.

Do you need to know what was to be the result thereafter?

They said, it was the doctrine of Malaysia Boleh!

Putrajaya & Maintenance Contract

Entrepreneurial Development and Cooperative Minister Mohd Khaled Nordin said: "The standard of maintenance of Putrajaya buildings may have to be further enhanced.

According to Khaled Nordin government buildings in Putrajaya should be more sophisticated than elsewhere in the country and it is reasonable for JKR to re-look into the maintenance contract to see if all steps are taken to detect any defects or wear and tear in the building.

Does the government understand what is maintenance and what is maintenance management?

Maintenance of public buildings would have to deal with preservation and restoration of the facilities and infrastructures.

Maintenance management is basically concerned with the establishment of a framework for the maintenance of facilities, and it’s role is to set a standard of best practices on the management of building facilities, utilities and the upkeep of the building conditions.

It is a principle of conservation that work on a significant building should be based on a proper understanding of the building & its problems.

JKR and those responsible for maintenance management must have a Maintenance Management Framework (MMF) which consist of processes that assists them in establishing a framework for the maintenance of buildings. The primary objective of MMF is to achieve consistency in the planning, implementation & reporting of building maintenance and upkeep.

The establishment of condition standards for building is fundamental to the maintenance management process. It provides a statement of the desired condition to which assets should be maintained to enable a department’s service delivery requirements to be achieved effectively. The standards must be adequate to reflect the asset performance required to meet service delivery demand.

The application of condition standards to building involves a systematic process of reviewing all assets & nominating condition ratings that can be related to each element of each asset within the department’s asset portfolio.

Building condition standards must be articulated to the maintenance service provider & documented in procurement arrangements such as a SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT (SLA). Top level management must endorsed it. The standards will be used as referenced by the service provider within the day-to-day maintenance delivery process.

Dear Khaled and Samy Vellu, do you think JKR and Putrajaya maintenance department understand all this? Did they have the knowledge of maintenance management or are they supervisors of defects, ie wait till those plants, equipments and fittings fails or fails to work and then get the workers to repair them? This is repair management and it is damage control system, not maintenance management fundamentals.

Apart from this, do you all know how the government outsource their maintenance management and what was the criteria in the selection of contractors processes?

I once talk to a contractor who was awarded a contract for maintenance and he told me that he had sub-contracted it to another with a "nett" profit of 30%.

Dear Khaled and Samy, please go and check all your contractors and you will know almost all of them are "Ali-Babas" with 30% mark-up in their contract sum.

Paying a heavy price for lack of maintenance or the lack of a competent maintenance contractor?

The cost of maintaining Ijok is nothing!!!