KUCHING (June 24): Thirteen Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) contractors were honoured with a Gold Award at this year’s Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Excellence awards ceremony here on Friday night.

They were awarded for their outstanding HSE performance over the past year in the ceremony held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK).

Three contractors, namely Sri Datai Mining Sdn Bhd, KEC International (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Embun Pelangi, each won the award in the Contractor EIA Compliance Award (CECA) category.

Meanwhile, Gabungan Binaan Jurutenaga Sdn Bhd, Hii Brothers Electrical Co, Hii Hua Chuon Electrical Works, Mega Electrical Engineering Service, EPC Synergy Sdn Bhd, Kejuruteraan Powerpoint Sdn Bhd, Metro Glide Sdn Bhd, Phang Yeu Fatt & Paul Phang Contractors Sdn Bhd, Sri Datai Mining Sdn Bhd and Timor Kencana Sdn Bhd received the award in the Contractor Transformation Programme (CTP) category.

In the CECA category, Consortium of KEC International (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Golden Harvest Construction Sdn Bhd received a Silver Award. The Bronze Award of the category went to Larsen & Toubro (East Asia) Sdn BHd and Consortium of Larsen & Toubro (East Asia) Sdn Bhd and Pekerjaan Piasau Konkerit Sdn Bhd.

Thirteen Silver Awards in the CTP category were given to Avid Ventures Sdn Bhd, Bong Jee Nyan Construction Sdn Bhd, Ciri Kuasa Sdn Bhd, Glorious (NG) Electrical Engineering Sdn Bhd, High Line Electrical Works, John Ho & Company, Kemena Holding Sdn Bhd, Metro Mekar Sdn Bhd, Satria Kaya Sdn Bhd, Selamat Jaya, Setia Yara Electrical Works, Promace Engineering Sdn Bhd, and Yamaco Engineering Sdn Bhd.

The CTP category also saw six Bronze Awards presented to Akobest Sdn Bhd, AZ Enterprise, Bakun Sejati Sdn Bhd, Hankong Electrical Sdn Bhd, Lim Aik Chai Electrical Sdn Bhd, and Yong Kiong Aircond & Electrical Sdn Bhd.

HSE Excellence Awards also presented four contractors with a Participation Certificate including Shanghai Electric Power T&D (M) Sdn Bhd in the CECA category and Aik Loung Land & Marine Electric Motor Works Sdn Bhd, Hing Lee Electrical & Air-Condition Works, and Technicorps Builder Sdn Bhd for the CTP category.

SEB Group chief executive officer Datu Sharbini Suhaili in his officiating speech congratulated the award recipients for their unwavering dedication to their HSE practices that have made a lasting impact on SEB and how they conduct their operations.

“We are grateful for your hard work and look forward to future opportunities for collaboration.

“I would also like to thank our people for taking ownership of HSE in their day-to-day work — their conduct is a testament to generating HSE culture that we have cultivated in Sarawak Energy. So let us continue to work together to make Sarawak Energy a great and safe place for work,” he said.

Sharbini said that through collaborative efforts with their contractors, SEB has been able to foster a strong culture of HSE excellence within the company.

“This is imperative to realising our regional renewable energy powerhouse ambitions while we strive to perform and deliver in accordance with international expectations and regulations as we continue to grow on the global stage.

“Recognising this, we continuously benchmark our performance and practices against other best-in-class utilities and top-quartile multinational companies to get a better understanding of where we are in our ongoing HSE journey.

“This consistent focus on self-reflection and improvement has allowed us to identify the gaps in our current operation and develop innovations as well as strategies to address them,” he said.

Adding on, Sharbini said without the commitment and ability of their contractors, SEB would not be able to implement their strategies — which have been vital in their efforts to enhance health and safety at their project sites while minimising any negative impacts on the surrounding environment, thus ensuring the contractors are able to benefits from Sarawak Energy’s operation.

“Sarawak Energy works closely with our contractors to ensure that all construction and operational activities are carried out with good compliance with HSE requirements.

“With this spirit of collaboration and partnership has enabled us to achieve high level of confidence and compliance in all of our major projects with a single exception – for which Sarawak Energy has taken punitive measures by removing a contractor’s project manager early this year and exercised the payment deduction penalty provisions against the contractor and we hope we would not have to do that again in the future.

“It should also be noted that we recently revised our contract terms with higher penalties for non-compliance reflecting Sarawak Energy’s seriousness on the importance of HSE compliance,” he said.

He said SEB’s success has been built on continuous capability development of our health, safety and environmental officers with relevant competencies in house training, coaching and continuous awareness programme, regular engagement with project management personnel and contractors, continuous monitoring and improving HSE performance at all our project sites and last but not least self-regulation to ensure compliance with internal SOPs and regulatory requirement.

“In addition, we have rolled out our new Erosion and Sediment Control Plan or ESCP Guideline towards the end of last year to support the implementation of environmental best practices at its project sites and provide self-regulation mechanisms to guide our contractors.

“This document provides structured guidance on important principles, techniques, design aspects and technical calculations to help in-house ESCP reviewers assess ESCP reports.

“We have also revised the Environmental Management Guidelines for Construction Sites earlier this year to ensure our project team and contractors have structured procedures in place for environmental management,” he added.

Also present at the awards ceremony was SEB senior vice president for Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) Marconi Madai and HSE general manager Robin Tigai.