Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin today accused then finance minister Lim Guan Eng of "directly taking up" the approval of a project by her ministry without an open tender being called in 2019.
In a statement today, Zuraida said investigations by her ministry revealed that the contractor - Bumi Segar Indah Sdn Bhd - had approached Lim on Nov 26, 2018 where the latter "renegotiated" this project.
"Lim then advised Bumi Segar Indah to approach the Housing and Local Government Ministry to present and follow up with the formal proposal.
"Subsequently, the project was approved by the Finance Ministry, helmed by Lim, through a letter dated Feb 20, 2019 from the Finance Ministry to the Housing and Local Government Ministry secretary-general," she said.
Against this backdrop, Zuraida claimed she was a victim of a "false spin" by Pakatan Harapan politicians who accused her ministry of awarding a RM170.3 million contract without open tender for the solid waste transfer project in Taman Beringin, Jinjang.
Malaysiakini is contacting Lim and Bumi Segar Indah for a response.
On Facebook, Lim said he will address Zuraida's claims tomorrow.
Zuraida said the other project, a software accounting system, was also approved by the Finance Ministry and involved "five separate ministries".
The RM501,206.37 project was awarded to Century Software (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.
She did not provide further details for the second project.
Yesterday, Lim claimed former Harapan ministers who were now part of the Perikatan Nasional cabinet were in the know about the 101 directly awarded projects as they were raised during Harapan cabinet meetings.
Back in December 2019, Zuraida had paid an official visit to the Taman Beringin facility.
Lim has since urged Zuraida to take up her discontent with current Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz who published details of the 101 Harapan-era directly negotiated projects earlier this week.
Harapan's critics have accused the coalition of reneging its purported promise to do away with direct award contracts during its 22 months administration.
This happened after Zafrul told Parliament that Harapan had signed 101 procurement contracts valued at RM6.61 billion without an open tender process.
Harapan figures have since pointed out that the coalition never promised to stop practising direct tender because it was not possible in some specific situation.
Moreover, item 23 of the coalition's election manifesto stated that they were to implement open tenders as widely as possible to ensure transparency.
Yesterday, Lim argued that the Harapan administration had achieved this as only a small fraction, 0.07 percent, of the value of contracts issued by Harapan were for new direct award contracts, which in most cases could not be avoided.
He said the bulk of the direct award contracts were for legacy projects left by the BN administration or for contracts for suppliers where the Harapan administration had no options. - Mkini
This happened after Zafrul told Parliament that Harapan had signed 101 procurement contracts valued at RM6.61 billion without an open tender process.
Harapan figures have since pointed out that the coalition never promised to stop practising direct tender because it was not possible in some specific situation.
Moreover, item 23 of the coalition's election manifesto stated that they were to implement open tenders as widely as possible to ensure transparency.
Yesterday, Lim argued that the Harapan administration had achieved this as only a small fraction, 0.07 percent, of the value of contracts issued by Harapan were for new direct award contracts, which in most cases could not be avoided.
He said the bulk of the direct award contracts were for legacy projects left by the BN administration or for contracts for suppliers where the Harapan administration had no options. - Mkini
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