Saturday, November 24, 2007

RM400 m Istana is now RM650 million

And growing? No open tender for the new Istana project was reported. When the Press first carried the story last year, we were told it would cost RM400 million and that the project had been given to a Sendirian Berhad.

In just a year, the price tag has gone up to RM650 million!

CTSB, one of the earliest to blog about this last year, has been keeping an eye on it. Click here to see his latest posting, Maya maju the project by RM250 million last Friday. My earliest take on the istana established that Maya Maju Sdn Bhd, the lucky company, is Not Khairy's Maya.

13 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:27 am

    mmm... no wonder they ( the royalty ) are against the 10 eleven march.

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  2. I guess the King has no power also to decline the building of a new palace... after all, what's a few starving Malaysians,citizens so poor they can't help themselves out of the vicious generational cycle of poverty, families burnt to death coz they can't pay their electricity bills compared to a spanking new palace which is hugely redundant? Those who matter profit what... Arrogance, apathy, detachment, blatant corruption and wastage of valuable funds...makin lama makin menjadi2...God always has ways of bringing excesses to an end as history has time and again proven...and we the lowly people will pay for it...as usual la..depa ni pekak dan buta...can't blame them...it's a continuation of what has been seeded decades ago...only now the jesters have taken over gleefully...isn't there any form of check and balance for all the proposed huge projects using taxpayers' monies? Stop it before it goes through? Even the voice of 100 thousand people will make a difference...dari tak dak voice langsung...

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  3. Anonymous3:23 pm

    why only rm650 million?

    for what the royalty has done for the country & the ppls, we think they deserve at least a rm1 billion or even rm2 billion palace.

    and who cares about the 30,000 odd ethnic indians' plight - who took to the street this morning.

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  4. The last Agong viewed the design for the new palace
    And the press reported it as $450 million last year

    Now it shot up to $650 million
    What I think of it?
    Somebody tweaked the gravy train

    There is money to be had
    The company thinks so
    And so are the bridging people

    Only the tax payers feeling loss
    The money pays through taxes
    Does the country need a new palace?
    I personally feel it doesn’t…………..

    It is the sleeping beauty snoring away
    Never knowing the day and night
    In the world the dreaming designs so beautifully
    The pretty maidens dancing through
    Life feeling so good doesn’t need to worry

    Only the dark forces dig
    The underground tunnel for the gravy train
    In front erecting beautiful facades
    Fooling the eyes as people pass by
    And the sleeping beauty sleeps away

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  5. Anonymous6:25 pm

    so this istana is for our king ? big money splashed..
    hmm. no wonder he has abandoned us rakyat.

    maybe malaysians should consider if we need royalty in our life?

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  6. Thanks for the link. It's the failure of the Design-Built Contract to ensure the design is adequate that resulted in the massive cost overrun.

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  7. Anonymous12:24 am

    who is behind this palace and the contract. Don't blame the Agong or other royalty. This coul be out of their hands.

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  8. Anonymous8:31 am

    what is $650 million - that is less than 1% of petronas NET PROFIT every year. palace only once in 10 years.

    if want to ask sure can ask lots of questions: why need a $45 million building in the middle of perak jungle when they are very poor people who don't have enough to eat?

    what's happening to all the blue-roofed "community halls" built all over perak?

    why time dot com (share price 80 sen)lose millions every year with all the licenses, and digi (share price $23) make hundreds of millions every year?

    banyak boleh tanya lah

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  9. Anonymous11:52 am

    Bro,

    Trying to make the Agong & sultan look bad....cheap trick.

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  10. Anonymous12:52 pm

    Hope the king will boycott the new palace in support of the Rakyat....

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  11. Anonymous6:40 pm

    RM650 million for a palace, RM 98million to send a Malaysian into space and USD 972 million on a few submarines. Were all this necessary?

    Rm 1.0bn can make alot of difference in helping to curb poverty in the rural areas and dozens of schools can be built to school underpriviledge students. With the rise of social crimes the government could use the money to upgrade national civilian security rather than preparing ourselves for war. Are any of the neighbouring countries planning to takeover us? Defending against Singapore?

    I really wonder out of the RM650million sum how much actually goes to the middle man who match the tenders with the contractors. 10-20%?

    As much as we want to reward these sleeping leaders (a term the business world refers to inactive directors as sleeping directors), because of their emense contribution during our ancestors era, there should be a limit of our spending for non-productive investments. As a king he should be wise enough to look into the states/countries prosperity beforehand. Without the people who will be their subjects (yes, plus the posh cars, king's residence and monthly salary)

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  12. Anonymous10:30 pm

    i got fren in treasury (ooppps) who told me the istana negara will cost about 750m, and agreed by the cabinet..

    i believe in the near future will boost to rm1b..

    and.. now there's no tender.. all direct nego..(where got nego..what cronies want + few % into their deep pocket)

    shit man.. that govt money, from the people to the politicians..

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  13. Anonymous12:44 pm

    Anonymous said...

    Bro,

    Trying to make the Agong & sultan look bad....cheap trick.


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    11:52 AM
    Anonymous said...

    Hope the king will boycott the new palace in support of the Rakyat....

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    LOL, u guys are funny la. talk as though Agong gives a damn.
    wakakkakaka

    ROTFLMAOFLL

    you all talk as though the agong cannot say, "i dont want a new palace and i wont stay in it" if he really is concerned.

    ReplyDelete