Defective Trains from China – More
than what meets the eyes.
People’s Power Party is shocked to read all
the various reports that have come in with regards to the 26 defective trains
out of 35 trains which SMRT and LTA have purchased from the consortium comprised
of Japanese company Kawasaki Heavy Industries Rolling Stock Company and CSR
Sifang Locomotive & Rolling Stock Company Ltd.
We demand answers for the following
concerns which involved public safety and interest from LTA and SMRT:
1)
According to the report by Hong
Kong Factwire, SMRT has suspected that the massive breakdown in December 2011
was caused by these new trains delivered from China. That was the reason why
progressive payment from SMRT was slowed down and the subcontractors suffered
cashflow problem. It was also said that SMRT has reduced the frequency of the
schedule of these new trains from China after that incident in
December 2011. We demand a response from SMRT on the validity of this report
and if so, why it was not raised in the committee of inquiry which was held to
find out the root cause of the breakdown then?
2)
LTA has admitted that
structural cracks have been found in these new trains since 2013. We demand an
explanation from LTA and SMRT why would they continue to order more trains from
the consortium in 2014 and subsequently in 2015, amounting to a total of over
100 trains, after they have found an unusually high defective rate of 74% out
of the first batch of 35?
3)
According to records of court
proceeding launched in China
with regards to the labour dispute between CSR Sifang and its former employee in 2013, the former
employee has stated in the affidavit that CSR Sifang has deliberately
fabricated test data results and reports in 2010. Was SMRT and LTA aware of
such accusations? Did SMRT and LTA send their own engineers or independent
Quality Control personnel to perform or audit the various tests? Did SMRT and
LTA carry out any due diligence on quality checks before these trains were
shipped to Singapore?
4)
It was also reported that these
trains offered by the Kawasaki
– Sifang consortium was not of the lowest bid. The lowest bid was offered by a
Korean company. The pertinent question is why would SMRT and LTA chose to buy
from the Kawasaki Sifang consortium which was more expensive but provided
sub-standard quality products? Did SMRT and LTA do any due diligence on their
quality test statistics before deciding to buy from this consortium?
5)
74% defective rate is totally
unacceptable by any standards. Did SMRT and LTA punish the supplier and
consortium by any means? Was there any performance bond submitted by the
Consortium in the first place?
6)
In view of the fact that there
are several doubts and accusation of fabrication of vital quality test results
with higher bidding price coupled with poor quality products, PPP urge the
Corruption Practice Investigation Bureau to start a thorough investigation into
the procurement process as this involved hundreds of million dollars of public
money.
7)
Concurrently, an independent
Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry consisting of opposition MPs and external
independent experts should be convened to investigate the SMRT and LTA should
be stopped from procuring any trains from this Consortium before the findings
of the COI has completed. Ministry of Transport and LTA have opined that the
cracks found are not “safety critical”. However, we find their assertion lacks
credibility and we should no longer believe in PAP government’s “ownself check
ownself” model of governance. The COI should determine whether there is any
negligence or dereliction of duties by the various parties in the procurement
process and whether public safety has been compromised by these defective
trains.
8)
Last but not least, as a public
listed company, SMRT should be censured for trying to hide such vital information
of the defective trains from the general public. Transparency and
accountability are two key important factors in upholding public confidence in
a company like SMRT which is providing vital public transportation service. It
is totally unacceptable for institutions like Singapore General
Hospital or SMRT which
provides critical vital public services to continue to operate in such an
opaque and irresponsible manner. We demand accountability from the respective
leadership for such mismanagement of public services.
Goh Meng Seng
Secretary General
For CEC
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