KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Engineering consortium MMC Gamuda Sdn Bhd has shot back at allegations made by Damansara MP Tony Pua in the second part of his response to former two-time prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In a statement, Gamuda Engineering Sdn Bhd managing director Justin Chin Jing Ho said Pua’s allegations against MMC Gamuda were baseless and defamatory, while his version of the story was completely unfounded.

"Your misrepresentation of events and portrayal of the ‘truth’ in numerous instances in your statement were disingenuous at best. Our response will be brief and is intended to set the record straight, presenting the facts for all to examine,” Chin said.

Gamuda Engineering is a subsidiary of local engineering and construction giant Gamuda Bhd, which with MMC Corporation Bhd formed MMC Gamuda for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project.

Pua had defended himself from accusations from Dr Mahathir, whom he believes is still aggrieved at the DAP man over the open letter to MMC Gamuda over the MRT2 project in 2018.

Among allegations mentioned by Pua against MMC Gamuda in his letter was the nature of the RM8.82 billion that was cut from the project, to which Chin said that the cost savings were achieved by building MRT2 progressively to meet current demand, while providing space for upgrade for future needs.

"Among the factors behind the cost savings were conversion to turnkey model to save on Project Delivery Partner (PDP) fees, rationalisation in the allocation of reimbursables, contingencies and provisional sums, the deferment of the construction of Bandar Malaysia stations, more modest architectural finishing and scope rationalisation for electrical and mechanical system works,” he said.

Chin added that the appointed independent engineering consultant hired by Pua had no relevant track record of comparable complex multidisciplinary mega infrastructure projects, particularly for underground tunnelling works and systems.

"Put simply, they would not even be prequalified to tender as the design consultant for a project of this scale and complexity anywhere in the world but their study was used to guide your assumptions of ‘very significant savings to be achieved without sacrificing the functionality, viability and operations of the project’,” he said.

He said that MMC Gamuda, jointly with the MRT Corporation Bhd (MRTC), had recommended at the time to appoint an internationally qualified consultant of his own choosing with a respectable and relevant track record to conduct a fair, informed review of the project cost but Pua chose to disregard this for reasons unknown to them or to the public.

Chin added that allegations that MMC Gamuda had made countless trips to Dr Mahathir’s office were completely fictional as they understood the former prime minister’s preferred method of communication was through email and that is how they kept it.

"Our arguments presented to him in writing were exactly as set forth here which were also presented to the Ministry of Finance and your appointed independent engineering consultant.

"This included all of our technical rebuttals, which MRTC jointly concurred with, to the ‘potential savings’ opined by the appointed independent engineering consultant,” he said.

On Pua’s statement that large-scale contractors were prepared to bid at a lower price, Chin said that his assertion that other contractors could do it for a significantly lower price is speculative and unproven.

"It is incredulous to even consider that a ‘right’ price could have been offered in this manner when the procurement of such complex mega infrastructure projects typically takes upwards of six months at a minimum to reasonably assess from a blank canvas, much more so given that the project was already 40 per cent underway with many complicated interfaces and considerations unknown to external contactors,” he said.

He said that after Pua had sent the open letter to MMC Gamuda, many engineers and site operatives from MMC Gamuda took it onto themselves to highlight their predicament on their personal social media channels, leading to the #pray4MRT2 and #save20kjobs, which Pua claims was a massive public relations and social media campaign done by them.

Dr Mahathir in his upcoming memoir titled Capturing Hope: The Struggle Continues For A New Malaysia alluded to a certain political secretary at time who acted like a minister and threatened a property developer who faced financial problems in a joint venture project with the government to develop a multi-billion ringgit complex in Kuala Lumpur.

His remark then sparked the response by Pua, despite not being mentioned by name by Dr Mahathir.