A karting circuit, a quarter-mile drag racing strip, a motor museum and 35,000 sq m of commercial space are being planned for the motorsports hub.
However, a visit to the site yesterday showed all activity on the Changi Motorsports Hub had ground to a halt. Further enquiries revealed that work had stopped in the middle of last month after SG Changi, the consortium who won the bid in 2009 to build the facility, failed to deliver on time an instalment for the $50-million piling work.
The $370-million project came under scrutiny after media reports last month said the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) had begun a probe into the tender for the project.
MediaCorp revealed that the consortium's only other shareholder, Thia Yoke Kian, had been assisting the bureau with investigations since November.
While SG Changi director and general manager Moto Sakuma said they have handed their accounts and records to the CPIB and cooperated with the bureau fully, they are unsure if the probe is still in progress or has been concluded.
Said Sakuma: "We have a Project Delivery Agreement with the Singapore Government to complete construction of the track by the end of this year and we have no choice but to get funds from outside of Singapore, if this is what it takes for us to honour our agreement."
"... as long as CPIB do not clear us publicly, we are caught in a bind because our investors want this clearance before handing us the funds to complete construction of the track. Without this investment it will be difficult for us to move forward."
The CPIB probe has spooked interested parties, especially those from Singapore, and the 46-year-old now plans to court investors from Japan and Europe.
This could inevitably lead to the country's first permanent motor race track being under the total control of foreigners when completed at the end of the year.
Added Sakuma: "If the funds do not come in soon, we are dead."
ORIGINAL SOURCE
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