KUALA LUMPUR: Federal Territo­ries MCA wants the FT Ministry to act against a Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) senior officer who allegedly abused his position in the Cheras crematorium contracts.

Federal Territories MCA chief Datuk Yew Teong Look expressed hope that FT Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor would intervene and take stern action against corrupt officers.

“City Hall used to be a five-star local authority; in order to maintain that five-star rating they need to ensure that integrity and transpa­rency in their management is retained at all times,” he said in a telephone interview.

He was responding to yesterday’s front page story in StarMetro titled “Under the Spotlight” of another high-ranking DBKL official under the spotlight of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for alleged abuse of power and corruption.

FT MCA public service bureau chairman Banie Chin wants Tengku Adnan to cancel the contracts for the maintenance of cremation burners as well as to buy six new burners.

“We cannot allow this to happen as it involves rate payers funds and since both the companies seem to be connected you know something is not right,” Chin said.

According to the StarMetro report, the said official – who is with City Hall’s Engineering Mechanical and Electrical Department – is being investigated for a multi-million ringgit Cheras Crematorium maintenance contract.

The senior official had awarded two contracts between 2015 and 2016, namely the maintenance of cremation burners and the purchase of additional six cremation burners worth RM10mil for the under-utilised crematorium.

The maintenance contract involves the upkeep of seven cremation burners, costing RM7mil for three years.

DBKL’s integrity unit officers from MACC initiated the investigation on grounds they deemed the contract value was exorbitant and the fact that DBKL was being overcharged by 1,500%, based on the market rate.

Contractors were said to have submitted inflated invoices for unnecessary maintenance works.

DBKL was being billed about RM2.3mil a year for the maintenance of the burners, when the actual cost is much lower, experts in bereavement care services said.

Staff from a leading local fune­rary services company told StarMetro that the average cost of maintaining seven cremation bur­ners would only come to about RM150,000 a year.

This works out to a maintenance bill of under RM21,500 per burner annually.

But going by the bill charged to DBKL, the maintenance fee for its crematorium is a whopping RM329,000 for one burner.

A MACC source said City Hall had withheld several months’ payments to the contractor pending an investigation.

-The STAR-