MACC won’t probe Asia Mobility deal with S’gor govt

 

MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki speaking to reporters during a press conference at TNB’s headquarters in Bangsar today.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Azam Baki says the agency will not probe a possible conflict of interest in the Selangor government’s appointment of a company linked to the husband of youth and sports minister Hannah Yeoh for a transit system.

Questions arose on the possibility of preferential treatment following revelations that Asia Mobility Technologies Sdn Bhd was one of two companies the state government had given the project without going through an open tender. The company’s CEO, Ramachandran Muniandy, is Yeoh’s husband.

When asked whether MACC would probe the deal, Azam said it was not an offence for Asia Mobility to be awarded a contract by the Selangor government.

“In terms of the law, if someone gets a contract or benefits from any government entity, but that individual has nothing to do with that entity… then it’s not an offence,” he told reporters at an event here.

“Her (Yeoh’s) husband got a contract from the Selangor government and she (Yeoh) is the youth and sports minister, so there’s no link.

“The contract was given by a different entity which has nothing to do with Yeoh. If the ministry awarded her husband’s company a contract, then that’s a different story.”

Earlier today, Asia Mobility defended its involvement in Selangor’s new demand-responsive transit service, saying only two companies in the country are qualified to provide the service it gives.

In a statement, Asia Mobility said an open tender in the appointment process for the Selangor Mobility programme, a “highly specialised new service”, would have created a monopoly in the state.

“This would have stifled competitiveness and robbed the state of the opportunity to pilot the service in a real-world setting and assess the service providers’ performance over a reasonable period of time,” it said.

Asia Mobility was selected alongside Badan Bas Coach for the DRT service to provide first- and last-mile public transport services within the state. - FMT