RM29.9m for World Cup broadcast rights was sponsored, says ex-finance minister

The RM29.9 million paid for the rights to broadcast the Fifa World Cup 2018 should not be in the list of direct award contracts under the Pakatan Harapan administration, said former finance minister and Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng.

At a press conference today, Lim said the RM29.9 million was sponsored by AirAsia Bhd and Maxis Bhd.

"In other words, AirAsia Bhd and Maxis Bhd paid RTM, RTM paid Sports Media and Distributor Sdn Bhd.

"Moreover, the company has the sole rights for World Cup broadcasts in Malaysia. Therefore, an open tender could not be performed," said Lim.

Lim was responding to Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin who questioned why the Harapan administration forked out RM29.9 million after promising that taxpayers would not be charged.

On May 30, 2018, then communications and multimedia minister Gobind Singh Deo did mention the government had allocated RM40 million to secure the rights to broadcast 41 out of 64 matches on RTM channels.

"Of course, there will be sponsors and so forth, and they will absorb a substantial part of it," said Gobind at the time.

The bill for the World Cup was among the 101 items that the present government said were directly awarded contracts by the Harapan administration.

Harapan's critics have accused the coalition of reneging its promise to do away with direct awards.

However, Harapan leaders said such critics were misleading as the coalition never promised to do so as Item 23 of its election manifesto promised to use open tender processes as widely as possible.

Lim said Harapan had done so as the bulk of the direct award contracts paid for by the Harapan administration were mostly legacy projects or supply contracts signed during the BN administration.

The actual proportion of the direct award contracts said Lim, in relations to the RM6.61 billion total sum, was only 0.07 percent.

Most of the direct award contracts by the Harapan administration, said Lim, could not be avoided as it involved specialised suppliers, monopolies or emergencies. - Mkini