Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil and his Pakatan Harapan colleagues have mockingly thanked Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz for scoring an "own goal" after his ministry revealed a list of 101 government contracts awarded by the Harapan administration through direct negotiations.
"I want to thank Zafrul for helping to solve the problems that exist today.
"He has scored an 'own goal' or 'shot himself in the foot' by revealing the list of 101 projects allegedly given through direct negotiations worth RM6.61 billion," Fahmi told reporters while campaigning for independent candidate Amir Khusyairi Mohamad Tanusi in the Slim by-election today.
He said this when asked to comment on Zafrul's action in revealing the full list of 101 projects yesterday.
Fahmi added that the list proves that almost 72 percent or more than RM4.475 billion of the total value of RM6.61 billion was approved during the term of the previous BN government.
"Now we see a sad and embarrassing situation for friends in Perikatan Nasional (PN).
"I expect that Zafrul received a series of calls by BN friends last night. But I don't think they thanked him," he joked.
Zafrul's predecessor finance minister Lim Guan Eng said on Twitter that he would hold a press conference at 11am at the Parliament building today to expose what he called a “big lie by the PN minister of finance”.
Fellow Harapan MPs Wong Chen, Tony Pua, Ong Kian Ming and Anthony Loke have also weighed in to point out what they called errors in Zafrul's claims.
On Monday, Zafrul claimed that Lim had approved 101 projects worth RM6.61 billion through direct negotiations during the Harapan federal administration.
The claim had prompted bipartisan calls - including from Lim - to release details of the contracts.
Zafrul then released a list of the contracts yesterday.
Fahmi said Zafrul shouldn't stop there. "Actually, today I have included a question to Zafrul to state all the projects that have been given by direct consultation from 2013 until now.
"He has already started the right step by listing the 101 projects. Now we ask him to list all the direct negotiation projects from 2013 to now.
"I hope the Dewan Rakyat does not reject my question," Fahmi added.
The PKR communications director also asked Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin to explain the allocation of RM170 million for a waste disposal project that was approved by her ministry through direct negotiations.
"Earlier, Zuraida claimed her ministry did not give any direct contract or direct negotiations.
"But today, it is revealed that one of the projects given is a waste disposal project worth RM170 million, so Zuraida needs to explain this.
Fahmi called on former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali to also explain why he gave RM90,000 to a company for office renovation while serving as the economic affairs minister during the Harapan government.
Miti tenders all under BN's watch
Former international trade and industry (Miti) deputy minister Ong Kian Ming said the list given by Zafrul included four projects worth RM8.2 million. Although the projects were on Miti's list of direct negotiation projects during Harapan's administration, all of them took place prior to the 14th general election (GE14).
"I hope Zafrul and his team at the Finance Ministry can review their list of direct negotiation projects carefully," he tweeted.
The Bangi MP cited that RM545,000 was spent on a Young CEO Summit 2018 for YouTubers but the event was organised in March 2018, before GE14.
He added that nearly RM6 million was spent on an event called Himpunan Usahawan Bumiputera but it also took place in March 2018 before GE14.
"RM999,000 was spent on an event called Jom Niaga Wilayah Utara under Miti's direct negotiation list of contracts but this event took place in January 2018.
"RM632,000 was spent on an event called MINI SDSI (Satu Daerah Satu Industri) under Miti's direct negotiation list of contracts but this event took place in March 2018,” Ong further tweeted.
Wong Chen: Explain Datasonic
PKR's Subang MP Wong Chen also congratulated Zafrul for walking the talk by publishing the 101 projects.
"After all the fuss and having read through the list, it appears that most, if not all, of these projects, can be explained by the former Harapan ministers involved.
"However, in revealing the list the new finance minister has also inadvertently put his own boss (Prime Minister) Muhyiddin Yassin under the spotlight," Wong said.
According to the list, he said, number 15 showed a RM270 million negotiated tender awarded to Datasonic Technologies when Muhyiddin was the home minister.
"Datasonic has an interesting past and is currently involved in (Umno president) Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's ongoing corruption trial.
"In February 2020, the Datasonic Group deputy managing director had testified that Datasonic paid Zahid RM6 million as a political donation," he added.
Rail project listing preposterous, says Pua
Meanwhile, Damansara MP Tony Pua also took aim at the list, saying that one particular project - the Klang Valley Double Tracking (Phase II) project (KVDT2) worth RM4.4 billion (or over 66 percent of the purported total direct negotiation value) - was unjustly included in the list.
"That's preposterous because the contract for the KVDT2 was awarded by BN before Harapan took over.
"Not only that, BN awarded the contract for RM5.265 billion but we wanted to terminate the contract because we believed that it was overpriced, like typical BN contracts.”
Pua said that after protracted negotiations, the contractor, DhayaMaju, which is a joint venture with LTAT, agreed to reduce the price by 15 percent to RM4.475 billion and this was endorsed by the cabinet.
"Hello! Harapan saved the taxpayers RM790 million!" he added.
"For days, we were left scratching our heads as to how we purportedly gave direct negotiation contracts amounting to RM6.61 billion (even if it's only less than 1.4 percent of total procurement),” said Pua, who also blasted Azmin and Zuraida for telling Parliament that the issue was never tabled to the cabinet.
"Unsurprising, perhaps they are sleeping on the job," he added.
Former deputy agriculture and agro-based industry minister Sim Tze Tzin said PN's intention to label Harapan as a corrupt administration backfired as the people know the difference between good governance and corruption.
Taking his former ministry as an example, he said the biggest direct award was a RM2.98 million project, which was needed urgently to address the spread of rabies in Sarawak following the death of a five-year-old child.
"Is this corruption? Is saving our children's lives misappropriation? Who was our crony then?" he said, adding that other countries have the practice of direct award during epidemics and emergencies as well as any events that require the nation to be saved.
Direct tenders were given during the BN era when those projects should have been awarded via open tender, Sim said.
He challenged PN to reveal its own projects which were issued through direct negotiations. - Mkini
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