Engineer charged over Terengganu stadium collapse

KUALA TERENGGANU: A consultant engineer was charged at the Session Courts here Monday over the roof collapse incident at Stadium Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin in Gong Badak in June 2, 2009.

Wan Manan Wan Ali, 51, from Kuala Ibai, here, claimed trail while Justice M. Bakri Abdul Majid fixed March 17 as the re-mention date.

Based on the charge sheet, Wan Manan was alleged to have acted like an approved examiner in issuing a document dated Jan 15, 2009 on the main roof truss system and its related works for the proposal to construct the main stadium, known as the Terengganu Sport Complex.

He is alleged to have signed and submitted the document to the state Public Works Department (PWD) director Rosli Zainal which was also tantamount to deceiving the then State Secretary Datuk Mokhtar Nong into believing he was the approved examiner.

The offence was allegedly committed between Jan 15 and March 29, 2009 at the Terengganu PWD office.

The charge under Section 419 of the Penal Code carries a maximum jail term of seven years or fine, or both, upon conviction.

The incident occurred less than a year after the handover of the stadium to enable the state to host the Malaysia Games (Sukma) in May 2009.

An investigation committee established by the Public Works Department to determine the cause of the collapse at the RM292mil stadium underlined several crucial factors in a detailed 60-page confidential report submitted to the state government one year after the incident.

Among the factors cited were serious engineering flaws, shoddy workmanship, inferior materials and lack of expertise in the key project management team.

It also stated that the project management team did not have the necessary skills and competence to manage a project of such magnitude and complexity.

The committee also determined that the main cause of the collapse to be, among others, faulty design with failure to take into account the support condition of the roof structure.

The committee also noted that the management team had failed to conduct a design analysis, considering that the complex architectural shape and large spans made the structure very sensitive to any movement in the supporting structures.