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PIE viaduct collapse: Contractor won project with lowest bid, good safety record

Or Kim Peow Contractors premises at Kranji (Photo: Bryan Huang/Yahoo News Singapore)
Or Kim Peow Contractors premises at Kranji (Photo: Bryan Huang/Yahoo News Singapore)

UPDATE: Minister of State for Manpower Sam Tan told Parliament that investigations into the 2015 accident showed that there was no “systemic failure” in OKP’s safety management system.

The construction firm that worked on the PIE viaduct structure that collapsed on 14 July was awarded the project despite one previous case of workplace fatality, as it had submitted the lowest bid and also had a good safety record, said Senior Minister of State for Transport Lam Pin Min on Tuesday (1 August).

Speaking in Parliament, Lam acknowledged that Or Kim Peow Contractors (OKP) was fined by the Manpower Ministry (MOM) for a fatal workplace accident at Yio Chu Kang flyover in 2015, resulting in one fatality and three injuries. But he noted that prior to the 2015 accident, OKP had had an accident-free record of more than 250,000 man-hours.

“MOM’s investigations (of the 2015 accident) were still ongoing at the time LTA was evaluating OKP’s bid for the construction of this viaduct in question, and hence, LTA did not disqualify OKP outright. Nevertheless, LTA gave OKP a low safety performance score in the evaluation of its bid.”

“On the other hand, OKP offered the lowest tender price and also had a good track record in completing many similar infrastructural projects over the past 10 years. Overall, it obtained the highest (price-quality) score and was awarded the project.”

Lam was responding to a total of eight parliamentary questions submitted by MPs on the incident that left one worker dead and 10 injured. Preliminary investigations showed that the brackets that help support beams, known as corbels, gave way while the team was working on it.

Minister of State for Manpower Sam Tan said that after the 2015 accident, the authorities investigated OKP’s safety management system and found that there was no “systemic failure” at the company.

As such, OKP was not placed under a surveillance programme for companies with poor safety management, Tan told Parliament in response to questions from MPs.

Under the Business Under Surveillance (BUS) programme, companies need to show to MOM that they have taken steps to improve workplace safety and health (WSH) before they are taken out of BUS, which usually takes at least a year, Tan said.

“This was the situation in 2015. As part of continuous effects to improve WSH performance, we further strengthened BUS in May 2016 and put companies on BUS immediately after a workplace fatality,” Tan added.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is working with MOM and the Building & Construction Authority (BCA) to investigate the cause of the viaduct collapse, which is expected to be completed in October. The project continues to be put on hold until then.

Lam revealed that over the past three years, the LTA has called a total of 175 tenders for construction works, which have received more than 1,100 submissions. Of these submissions, 69 were from contractors who had serious workplace safety lapses. Of these 69, only two bids were successful.

Both these bidders had submitted a lower price bid and received the highest overall price quality score. For these two scores, the winning price bids were 27 per cent and six per cent lower than the second lowest bids.

Lam added, “Two years ago, LTA further tightened the evaluation process, so that poor safety performance alone can lead to disqualification. Since then, 16 bids from 10 contractors have been disqualified for this reason.”