26/06/2005 Daily Express

Penang: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi wants all abandoned projects that can be salvaged to be revived immediately so that there are no more "ailing" projects in the country.

The Prime Minister said "ailing" projects were a crying shame and the problem must be overcome immediately with the co-operation of all parties including the state governments and the Housing and Local Government Ministry.

He said problems would arise if the state governments did not support the Federal Government's efforts to revive abandoned projects through Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad (SPNB).

He also said that due to the seriousness of the problem of abandoned projects, the Government would blacklist developers, contractors and individuals who caused their projects to be abandoned.

"There are too many contractors now, over 60,000 companies. If they cannot implement the project, it's better to blacklist them. They have breached the trust placed in them by not completing the projects," he said.

Abdullah said if the Government did not go after these errant developers and individuals, the disease would fester in the construction industry, much to the detriment of the Government, because it would have to allocate a big sum to revive the abandoned projects.

He said tales of abandoned projects, especially housing projects were heartbreaking. The house buyers had paid up but the developers were irresponsible and untrustworthy in discharging their responsibilities.

He said developers' excuses about facing financial problems and losses for not completing projects could not be accepted because all businesses had their ups and downs, profits and losses.

He said the Government had had to allocate RM3 billion to revive ailing and abandoned projects when such a large sum should have gone towards now projects to build facilities for the people.

"For no apparent reason, the Government had had to stump up RM3 billion to revive sick projects. This large sum could have been used to build new projects. This is a loss to the Government...but if the Government doesn't help, the people will make noise," he said.

Abdullah said so far, SPNB, a subsidiary of MOF Inc, had restored about 12,000 abandoned house and 20,000 more needed repairs.- Bernama