Selangor govt websites down
(The Star) – More than 30 Selangor government websites have been down since yesterday as a result of a dispute with the service provider, Obnet Sdn Bhd. The company stopped providing bandwidth services to the Selangor government as of Friday.
Obnet, a subsidary of Kannaltec Bhd, which is an IT solutions and network provider, was awarded a 20-year concession by the Selangor state government in 2003.
The company was to design, supply, install, operate and maintain a broadband network infrastructure for 345 state agencies.
Obnet Sdn Bhd CEO Jonedi Mohamed said his firm was approached in mid-2006 by the state government to revive the project and within five months, it had invested RM40mil into Selangor Net (SELNET) for a high performance scalable broadband network for 345 sites.
However, the company was given only 33 sites to provide bandwidth services to in July 2008 by the Pakatan Rakyat state government.
“We have given notice to the Selangor state government that the performance of the Subscription Agreement will be suspended until further notice.
“It is highly regrettable that negotiations with the state to resolve issues of the Subscription Agreement have stalled. We had tried for the past 18 months to resolve the issues with state ICT officials and exco. We have been left with no choice,” Jonedi said yesterday.
A check by The Star yesterday showed that the websites for the Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam city councils and Selangor State Develop-ment Corporation (PKNS) could not be accessed.
The Selangor state also posted a notice on its website that local district, authorities and PKNS are experiencing a “few technical problems” with the network infrastructure.
Jonedi said they are still open to negotiations with the state.
“If there is still no decision from the Selangor government, we will terminate the agreement and claim RM400mil to RM500mil as potential revenue from them as the concession is valid till 2025,” Jonedi said.
In Klang, Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim confirmed that a letter was issued to the state government about the suspension of the services.
“The state has taken to implementing a contingency plan,” he said.
He explained that the concession was given in 2002 to the Barisan Nasional state government and the process of establishing the system had taken many years.
“Currently, the state is in negotiations with Obnet (about the concession).
“The negotiation committee is headed by state secretary Datuk Ramli Mahmud and there has been no conclusion on the discussions yet,” he said.
