George Kent clinches lucrative Ampang LRT deal
(The Malaysian Insider) – A consortium led by George Kent, the company at the centre of repeated opposition allegations that it received preferential treatment from the government, was announced today as the winner of the lucrative deal to build the Ampang Line LRT extension, confirming earlier reports that it would be the recipient of the contract.
Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (Prasarana), the project and asset owner for the LRT Line Extension Project (LEP), said in a statement today that the contract for “Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Testing and Commissioning of System Works” for the Ampang Line Extension Project has been awarded to a George Kent-Lion Pacific joint venture.
Prasarana did not say how much the George Kent deal was worth, but pointed out that the entire project would come in below the original budget of RM7 billion.
PKR’s strategy chief Rafizi Ramli has repeatedly accused the prime minister of allegedly interfering in the tender bid and granting the multimillion contract to George Kent, which he claimed was controlled by a “close associate” of the prime minister and which also scored one of the lowest points in the technical and commercial evaluation for the project.