Saturday, 18 October 2008

what's the real story behind the eurocopter deal?

The whole controversy surrounding the purchase of the cougar helicopters was started by two letters sent by one Captain( R) Zahar Hashim. He is representing a local company known as Mentari Services Sdn Bhd. Mentari is brokering for Kelowna Industries. His company offered to supply 12 units of Russian made kazan helis for RM898 million. This was confirmed by his second letter.

In his first letter, he said, the price of R 1.452 billion was by Sikorsky. He said , he made a mistake.

Now, sakmongkol says, how much credibility can we give to him, if he cant even get it right in his first letter? And that first letter wasn’t addressed to any mamat kacang puteh seller. It was addressed to the incoming PM of Malaysia. If he cant even get his first letter right, can we believe this man to supply 12 helis to MINDEF?

Send him to the firing squad.

Assuming his second letter was correct, the prices of the helicopters were as follows:-

  1. 2.317B- EUROCOPTER
  2. 1.452 B- SIKORSKY
  3. 898 MILLION- FOR KAZAN HELICOPTERS.

Our captain says, at the price he is offering, the amount payable to Eurocopter can buy 30 Kazans. Cheap sale!.

But then, the Star online reproduced the following information from MINDEF Secgen. Who said, the tenders for the helicopters were as follows:-

  1. T521/07/A/001 - £341.88mil (RM2.08bil);
  2. T521/07/A/002 - RM663.1mil;
  3. T521/07/A/003 - €104.6mil (RM494.9mil);
  4. T521/07/A/004 - US$220.5mil (RM777.45mil);
  5. T521/07/A/005 - US$708.3mil; (RM2.49bil);
  6. T521/07/A/006 (Eurocopter) - €233.24mil (RM1.1bil);
  7. T521/07/A/007 - US$348.17mil (RM1.22bil).

Now, who is made to look stupid here? Where is the captain’s tender bid of RM898 million?

The cashiered captain says his offer was the lowest. Unless sakmongkol’s eyes deceived him, the tender in number 3 says RM494.9 million. Ini siapa punya, mein kapitan?

Will the captain explain how he obtained the price of RM 2.317 billion as that offered by Eurocopter. And where is the bid by Sikorsky of RM 1.452 billion?

Haiya- macam ini kalau you lead a platoon , semua boleh mati tau.

at

11 comments:

  1. Son of My Parents18 October 2008 at 07:12

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Son of My Parents18 October 2008 at 07:15

    Who is he to quote on behalf of Eurocopter and Sikorsky? Is he representing those manufacturers? Certainly not, as he's pushing for his Kazans. When he was drafting (presumably, that is) his first letter to MINDEF. He made himself look stupid by stating the price of his competitors, knowing (also presumably) that MINDEF could have "picked up the phone and call the representatives of Eurocopter and Sikorsky".

    And to tell MINDEF that "ooo.. when you buy my choppers, you can save this much.." Err.. MINDEF staff have calculators, right? Surely they can count for themselves.

    The other question - is it apple to apple? If the standard or specs put forth by MINDEF is similar to that of Eurocopter's, and if Kazan can match it, then that'll raise eyebrows... why the heck is Eurocopter's so damn expensive?

    Anyhow, looking at the tender of RM 494.9mil, I can't help but wonder what sort of choppers is this tenderer offering, what's the specs like (maybe Shaftec can do a bit of research on this when he knows who is that bidder, eh?)? However, I hope they won't go for the lowest bidder just for the sake of it. Otherwise, who knows- we'll suffer the same fate as we've suffered Nuris.

    Too many assumptions I've made here. Pardon me for that. It's like 7.10 a.m and my head's not geared up to do extensive browsing for chopper prices and specs, but still I gatai to comment.

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  3. Ariff Sabri18 October 2008 at 07:33

    erotomania,
    this captain has created a storm. people picked up on his letter and engaged in debates. some even acrimonious. his figures dont jived with the ones given by the MINDEF secgen. i posted this article late last night. couldnt believe the glaring misinformation. who do we believe- righteous captain or secgen?

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  4. Anonymous18 October 2008 at 09:14

    Still got room for captain zahar to supply kazan helicopter at much cheaper price. A battery operated miniature model at RM80 each. Well I know a supplier from Taiwan that can give bulk discount. They can fly in their specialist for demo at no additional cost. In fact few models available too not only kazan heli. Contact me if you are seriously interested Captain.

    Prebet Adam

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  5. Son of My Parents18 October 2008 at 09:44

    Aiya Prebet Adam.. Leave your phone number lah. Those choppers equipped with weapons also, no?

    The Star today carries an interesting report (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/10/18/nation/2312695&sec=nation) about this chopper deal. I welcome the notion. However, maybe Tuan Sakmongkol and the other esteemed visitors can offer their insights on this.

    Star reported that the kapitan said that his Kazans met all the specs set by MINDEF. Kalau dah nak sangat deal tu semua pun boleh kan? Lepas tu start rosak sana sini atau satu dua heli dah tumbang semasa flight, barulah tau yang komponen-komponen ada yang substandard.

    Wallahu Alam

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  6. Unknown18 October 2008 at 17:53

    Mr Sak
    what's the real story behind the eurocopter deal?
    I think the real story is my income tax has been used and i sudah kena con.
    For all the times i had to work late and get OT and travel away from my family just to get more income, has been income taxed to buy helicopters of which i will never knew its worthiness. Not to mention my hard work has made some politicians and his/her friends richer.
    never thought that designing the accounts for mindef in Jboss/oracle/linux with tip top VPN / kerberos to protect external threat when the real threat is internal. I kena con!!

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  7. Son of My Parents18 October 2008 at 20:47

    Mr anon at 1753hrs, 18 Oct 08,

    Your OT money is also taxed? Poor you. I thought that only your basic salary is taxed.

    It's not just your income tax, jer. Mine and even millions of others who pay tax. Yeah.. we bitch about mismanagement by the Govt, etc but hey, go easy a bit lah ye?

    The contract has not been awarded yet. The bids just came in and NTR said that he'll give a full explanation to the Parliament regarding this chopper deal. With this kind of high-powered scrutiny, I would like to believe that the Govt would be more careful in evaluating the bids. So, you're not conned yet lah.

    What if the Govt decides to award the job to the lowest bidder and one fine day later those choppers suffer mechanical failure? You'll say that you're conned also, right?

    I'm assuming that you're quite knowledgeable in ICT (hope you're not like Anwar who loves to throw bombastic words/jargons around). Maybe you can work out somekind of IT magic on your PCB account so that you don't have to pay income tax anymore? If that works, maybe you can offer somekind of consultancy for others who want to evade tax? Not me lah, I can't afford to pay your fee ;-)

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  8. Unknown18 October 2008 at 21:55

    hi erotomania, what's with the name?
    anyways, try to evade tax once, by claiming those books and pc that i never bought (got one given aledi), hopefully no IRS is watching this blog. he he ..
    I think we should get pak lah to get "Suruhanjaya menyiasat tender yang pelik pelik tapi benar". or
    "suruhanjaya utk menyiasat suruhanjaya yang ditubuhkan oleh suruhanjaya yang terdahulu."

    btw
    i am a lil' bit like anwar on the glasses and the misai. Other than that.. hey.. i am straight my friend...

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  9. Anonymous19 October 2008 at 02:05

    Yep, I do not think this kapt zahat is clean but this does not mean NTR is clean either.

    Baguslah thsese politikus exposing each other only then Rakyat can know the truth.

    Anyway this RM 2.2 Billion is chicken feed, can anybody explain how we "leak" 330 billions for the last 15 years (One of Petronas Twin Tower only cost ard RM 1 billion).

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  10. A Tabib19 October 2008 at 06:31

    Isn't this captain the guy who made news not too long ago by sending a complaint to the ACA about Pak Lah's alleged abuse of power in the coming Umno elections?

    Like erotomania says, are we comparing apple to apple when we are talking about the cost of the helis?

    There are several Kazans (Mi-17) flying about our skies. They belong to our Bomba and they don't look terribly sophisticated. Of course looks aren't everything. It's the bits and pieces added onto and into the aircraft that makes the difference. Things like radar, avionics, refuelling jigs, missiles, etc.

    Having flown a couple of Prebet Adam's helicopters which I bought in Amcorp mall, I can say the above with the same degree of confidence that the Capitan has of his figures.

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  11. Anonymous19 October 2008 at 09:29

    hi mr sak!

    since i've never flown even a Prebet Adam chopper (unlike a tabib hehehe!), i'm going to limit my comment only to hearsay abt the standard practice of msian gomen people when it comes to making purchases.

    1) shop for best deal [not necessarily the most cost effective or the cheapest, but that which can offer the best under the counter "cut" to person(s) doing purchasing].

    2) look for two or three other dealers/tenders with the highest prices/bids [if can get away with it, said purchaser(s) would hike up their prices/bids so the "pre-chosen" bid has to be the sweetest choice].

    3) once only a blind idiot cannot tell that the "pre-chosen" bid offers the obvious saving, submit the list of tenders.

    4) the outcome... only the same blind idiot above would not be able to guess.

    the chasm of disparity between the other tenders and that of #3 says to me that the usual SOP is being religiously observed. ;D

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