Lta awards $29 m contract to company that does not declare finances to acra

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

LTA AWARDS $29 M CONTRACT TO COMPANY THAT DOES NOT DECLARE FINANCES TO ACRA

Post date:
25 Jan 2015 - 12:57am








In late 2012, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) awarded a $29 million road expansion project along Braddell Road to a local engineering company Hexagroup. The project will change the dual three-lane road to a dual five-lane road including a flyover to the Braddell Underpass. It should alleviate traffic at two junctions at Toa Payoh Lorong 1 with 6, and Toa Payoh Lorong 1 with 4.
However, there have been no works done over the past 2 weeks and the project has been stopped. It is unlikely that the project will be completed by year end as targeted. It is unknown if Hexagroup have gone bust but sources familiar with the company are saying they are facing cash flow problems.






The 18 year old company have posted a $50.1 million profit in 2006 and a $4.6 million loss in 2007. Thereafter it stopped declaring its financial information to Singapore's national regulator of business entities ACRA for the past 7 years. The company could not be reached for comments despite several attempts by Straits Times reporters.
Interestingly, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) continues to allow Hexagroup to bid for projects not exceeding $40 million and the LTA awards its contract to a company that does not declare their profit and loss statements to ACRA.
The $29 million project will most likely be taken over by another contractor, and it is unknown how much more taxes will be lost due to the changing of contractors. As this is the second time in 2 years that contractors of public works have gone bust, it has become questionable if LTA have done its due diligence checking the financial background of its tender bidders.
Contractors going bust not only waste millions of taxpayers' monies but also creates inconvenience to the public in the form of traffic diversion and pollution due to project delay that normally stretch for just a few months.


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