The Transmile saga

The extend of the overreporting of the revenue for Transmile shocked many. What is worst is that the overreporting is not only for the accounts of financial year 2006 but also for 2005.

Its external auditors were suspicious of revenues of about RM300 millions (prorated for 18 of the 20 companies whose receivables were in doubt) for 2006. However, they (whether the same company or not I don't know) certified the accounts for 2005. It is now discovered that there was probably an overstatement of revenue of RM197 millions for 2005. So, how did they miss a doubtful revenue of close to RM200 millions?

This brings me to the next question. Are there any more 'Transmiles' out there? There were many companies on Bursa which recorded very good growths during the last few years. Were their CEOs all honest? Did their auditors all do a good job and not miss out on doubtful figures? This, only time will tell.

KL-Singapore air route

For too long now, MAS & SIA have been ripping-off travellers flying between the two destinations due to their duopolistic arrangement. This should not be allowed to continue further.

Low cost carriers like Air Asia and Tiger Airways have shown that air travel should not be so expensive. They want the KL-Sinagpore route opened so that they can offer travellers cheaper options for flying between the two cities. This should be done as soon as possible.

Before the sky is opened, MAS & SIA should do the right thing of lowering the fares for flights between the two cities now. This would only be fair to travellers. In any case, they would have to lower the fares once the route is opened. So why continue exploiting the travellers.

Cause of poor maintenance

Everything needs maintenance. Maintenance is important. More importantly, proper and correct maintenance must be done. This means maintenance must be done by professionally qualified people.

We all know this with our cars. We send our cars to well equipped and professionally manned workshops for servicing. These workshops may charge a little bit more but they look after the cars well. We don't mind paying the slightly higher fee.

Things may start to go wrong when maintenance is done by non-qualified personnel. Because of the lack of training, they don't see the root cause of problems. They may give surface or superficial treatments only. Soon, the real problem surfaces.

Another problem with non-professionals handling maintenance money is that very frequently, maintenance money is diverted to beautification work. A beautifully carpeted floor may be nice to look at and comfortable to walk on. But, when the roof leaks, the carpet is ruined. Similarly, a beautifully landscaped roadside will not appease the motorists when the road itself is riddled with potholes.

Also, when the allocation of funds is controlled by non-technical people, the importance of maintenance is often overlooked. More fund is often ploughed into new projects and insufficient amount allocated for maintenance. Without the required funds, proper maintenance cannot be carried out.

Uncouth MPs

Taiwan's parliament is well known for its fist fights and brawls. Malaysia's is known for its verbal faux pas. Whilst the former's punching is a result of heated debate and argument, the latter's is more of a deliberate attempt to belittle other people. After all, what is the relationship between a leaking building and the menstrual period of a woman.

A parliament's standing is measured by its quality of debate and articulation of arguments. With such utterances, the standard of the deliberations cannot be of very good quality. Also, it does not reflect the advancement of a nation. The elected representatives are not living up to the expectations of their constituencies.

The way to overcome this is to have a more stringent scrutiny of the candidates for election. When mischief is made, the perpetrator should be punished. Party colleagues should not throw their support blindly. They should not encourage unbecoming behaviour.

The money tree

Up, up and up. Everyday the share market is going higher. New records are set consecutively. This trend is not happening only in one place. It is a world wide phenomenon.

Stock investers, speculators and whoever that buys shares is making money. It is easy picking. Everybody is getting richer. People all round are happier.

Security analysts and financial journalists are all working overtime. They are trying hard to discover undervalued stocks. Everytime a report on an undervalued stock is published, the share price of the counter jumps. This must make the writer very proud and happy. He may have made money buying the stock himself too.

One contrarian analyst is Mr. Ooi Kok Hwa. In an article on personal investing published in The Star on 9 May 2007, he warned of a bubble in the stock market. He advises on caution and capital preservation.

It is summer now and the tree is growing well and the branches are covered with leaves. Soon, it will be winter and the leaves will drop leaving behind a bare tree. The only problem is nobody knows exactly when winter will come. You guess is as good as mine.

The Favoured Civil Servants

So the civil servants are getting a big salary raise. They should be very happy. Life is good for them. They get good salaries, 5 days week, good perks and lots of leaves. There is even pension to look after them after retirement.

Unfortunately, the employees in the private sector are not so lucky. They have to slog hard for not much better pay. They have much less job security and enjoy much lesser perks. They compare badly to the civil service.

This makes the civil service the choice employer. The civil service position is a coveted picking. However, only limited people can belong to this group.

To help the majority of the work force, more effort need to be made to build the economy. A robust and expanding economy will ensure that the private companies can flourish. They will then be able to pay their employees well. Also, the stardard of living need to be raised so that all citizens can enjoy their daily life.

A Damned Prioject

This is a hugh project. The engineering arm of the concessionaire group is the main contractor. They engage and manage the subcontractors. The consulting arm of the group designed the project and acts as adviser for the construction.

Due to cost saving, the main contractor does not have enough people on the ground overseeing the subcons. The key personnel running the show at site are a bit junior and they are preoccupied with office work. They seldom go to the site and check on their subordinates. As such, the junior engineers and supervisors are left pretty much on their own. Most of them prefer to take life easy. This leaves the contractor quite free to do what is convenient and easy for him. As a result, the project suffers.

The consulting arm has no authority over the subcons. They can only raise matters with the main contractor if they see anything that is not right. A lot of times, the issues raised are ignored by the main contractor. Thus, they become the frustrated lot.

Paul Wolfowitz

Why is it so difficult to fire Paul Wolfowitz? The President of the world bank has practised favouritism in the organization. That should be good enough reason for his dismissal.

There must be something wrong with the setup of the organization. Why is the board unable to remove him? Imagine what further damage he could do with impunity. He could very well bankrupt the bank.

The USA should not be so insensitive and unreasonable as to support a person who obviously has done wrong. National pride should not be at play here. Paul himself should just swallow his pride and bow out. That is the honourable thing to do.

Big China

China is big - with lots of people. When you live in a place that has a lot of people, you tend to be impersonal. You live in a world of your own. You do your own things and you don't care what others do and what they think of you.

China is attracting a lot of tourist now. The local people need to brush-up on their social etiquette so as not to offend the visitors. Things like talking loudly over the phone in public places, spitting in public buses and restaurants and digging the nasal passage in public are still quite common. The authorities should launch campaigns to let the people know that such behavior is not polite.

Another things tourist may find difficulty in is getting the Yuan (Renminbi). They are no or very few legal money changers in town. The banks don't make it easy for you to change your foreign currencies too. They require you to produce a copy of your passport and join in the long queues. You get put-off by that. You inevitably go back to your hotel and get your money changed there. Obviously, the rate you get is not so favourable. This is one service that almost every tourist will make use of. The authorities should make it convenient for tourist to avail this service.

JB city

There is still a lot of work to be done to improve the transport infrastructure in the city. In particular, the roads in the town need closer maintenance. Very often, potholes (some big ones) are found on the roads. Drains need to be maintained too so that the roads don't get flooded whenever it rains.

Jalan Wadi Hana is a road that is in serious need of attention. Walkways have been constructed on both sides of the road. This has blocked the drainage there. Whenever it rains, the road itself becomes a water course. The road proper is full of potholes and has not been paved at the sides near the walkways.

Jalan Wakaf has become a construction waste dumping site. All sorts of unwanted material is dumped there. This has attracted scavengers who set fire to burn off rubber coatings so as to salvage scrap metal. The burning rubber gives out a foul ordour and the smoke from the fire is polluting the air.

The drain in Jalan Sipi has collapsed near the sump as a result of erosion and underscouring. Some maintenance work is urgently needed now.