Cronyism in MAHB?

An insider from the airport regulator alleges of high level meddling in the tender process for MAHB publication, Convergence.

PETALING JAYA: A senior executive at the Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) has been accused of practicing cronyism in awarding an in-house publication contract to a local publisher.

A MAHB insider has claimed that the head of MAHB corporate communication department Nik Anis Nik Zakaria had allegedly facilitated the dubious deal in awarding the contract to a less deserving publisher when there were other candidates who were better.

In the letter which was posted today in popular blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin’s Malaysia Today, the anonymous staff said that MAHB publishes a bi-monthly magazine called Convergence to promote the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

The contract to publish the magazine expires as the end of this year.

“With its contract ending this year, the department had called for a fresh tender process and those bidding were given one month to come up with their working papers,” said the staff in the letter.

The insider added that from the bidding process, two companies were shortlisted, companies A and B, adding that the present publisher was not even in the top three category.

However, the insider accused Nik Anis of interfering the tender process.

“And from Nik Anis’ re-evaluation, the present publisher was shortlisted, with company B getting knocked out for some technical reasons,” said the staff.

The MAHB employee said that later, the two remaining companies, company A and the present publisher, were instructed to present their working papers to the MAHB committee on Nov 18, in the presence of senior officials of the airport regulator.

“What is strange is that the email inviting both companies for the presentation were only sent on Nov 15, at 5.05pm, giving the companies short notice to prepare themselves.

“But I believe the present publisher was informed of the matter way earlier,” claimed the staff.

Time extension denied

The MAHB employee added that company A has requested for a time extension to prepare themselves and also queried MAHB’s urgency on the matter.

“In the end, only the present publisher showed up for the presentation. I also believe that the presentation process was compromised.

“None of the other staff directly involved in the magazine publication was called for the presentation,” claimed the staff.

The insider said that action must be taken against those responsible for the matter but expressed little hope that anything would happen.

“This is because we all know that Nik Anis is close with MAHB managing director, Bashir Ahmad.

“But just for the record, company A was also shortlisted three years ago but did not get the tender for some unknown reasons,” added the insider.

A check on Convergence’s website shows that Nik Anis and Bashir also sit on the publication’s editorial board.

Neither Nik Anis nor MAHB could be contacted for comment at press time.