“While the DASH highway has been opened to the public, many subcontractors who worked on the highway still remain unpaid for their contributions.” — Mathew Thomas Philip, the law firm’s founder and managing director.

KUALA LUMPUR (July 4): Over 20 subcontractors who had worked on the Damansara-Shah Alam Elevated Expressway (DASH) are trying to force settlement talks with the aim of collecting outstanding payments amounting to RM100 million owed to them collectively from Prolintas.

A statement released by dispute resolution law firm Messrs Thomas Philip, which has been appointed to represent the subcontractors, said that while the highway has been open to the public, many subcontractors remain unpaid for their work.

“While the DASH highway has been opened to the public, many subcontractors who worked on the highway still remain unpaid for their contributions. The DASH subcontractors continue to face severe hardships that impact their families, employees, agents, and suppliers due to unpaid work,” said Mathew Thomas Philip, the founder and managing partner of the law firm.

“We have initiated various meetings and settlement proposals for the recovery of the outstanding debts with the hope of achieving a global settlement for all parties involved. Despite numerous attempts at negotiation, the subcontractors' plight remains unresolved and unanswered,” he added.

This follows disputes between Turnpike Synergy Sdn Bhd (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Prolintas) and the main contractor for the DASH highway, Panzana Enterprise Sdn Bhd. In March 2021, the subcontractors were ordered to stop work and leave the site without any prior notice, despite having completed nearly 90% of the project.

Projek Lintasan Damansara-Shah Alam Sdn Bhd (PLDASH), a wholly-owned unit of Prolintas, is the concession holder of the 20.1km DASH, which connects Puncak Perdana in Shah Alam with Penchala in Damansara. Meanwhile, Turnpike Synergy Sdn Bhd, another wholly-owned unit of Prolintas, is the main contractor for the construction of the highway which costs RM4.2 billion.

Panzana was a work package contractor which was terminated in 2021 by Turnpike Synergy after the latter had various issues. One of them being Panzana had subcontracted some portions of its contract to Pembinaan Melima (M) Sdn Bhd. It is unclear what problems Panzana had with the construction of the highway.

Pembinaan Melima had subsequently formed a consortium with four other subcontractors, namely Tropical Engineering Sdn Bhd, Tropical Profile (M) Sdn Bhd, Pembinaan Thin Chai Sdn Bhd and Prosper Apex Sdn Bhd.

“The time lost and revenue foregone in the two years could have been avoided had Turnpike managed the project well and worked together with the Melima Consortium to overcome whatever shortcomings were encountered by Panzana. In the current predicament, the subcontractors are still suffering from the fallout of the sudden stoppage of work and non-payments for work already done,” Pembinaan Melima’s Managing Director Alex Toong said.

Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazir Meraslam, the managing director of Pembinaan Mohamed Nazir Meraslam Sdn Bhd, whose company is one of the subcontractors for the DASH project, expressed his frustration and disappointment over the continued non-payment.

“This prolonged financial strain has caused significant stress and uncertainty for the employees and stakeholders. Our commitment to this project has been unwavering, yet we are left bearing the financial burden and unjust delays in payment,” he said.

Matthew has promised that he will do his utmost to recover the amount for the subcontractors.

The Edge has reached out to Prolintas for a comment on the matter.