KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — DAP wants the government to disclose all ministerial contracts and expenditures in its MyProcurement tender portal, and added that the portal should be shut down and cleaned up to prevent mistakes which were discovered this week.
DAP national publicity chief Tony Pua said the failure to publish complete details of all contracts will only lead to more suspicion that the government has plenty to hide and increase belief that it lacks the political will to clean up the procurement system.
“Only 16 ministries out of 26 ministries have any contracts posted on the portal," the Petaling Jaya Utara MP told reporters in Parliament.
He also disclosed that 10 ministries; Transport, Energy, Green Technology and Water, Plantation Industries and Commodities, Natural Resources and Environment, Agriculture, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Housing and Local government, Women, Family and Community Development and Foreign Affairs have not made public any contracts which have been awarded by the ministries.
Pua said that Minisry of Rural and Regional Development has only disclosed RM15.3 million of RM2.64 billion spent which accounted for less than 0.6 per cent of all purchases while the Prime Minister’s Department also only revealed 1.5 per cent of its total expenditure or RM174.8 million from the RM11.2 billion allocation.
“I’ve even been made to understand that certain ministries have objected vehemently to publishing information on certain types of contracts, for reasons possibly best explained by Prime Minister himself.
“By not being transparent and not publishing all contracts which have been awarded by the government, it will be impossible for Malaysians to determine if the government has been fair and judicious in the award of its contract," he added.
Pua said the reticence to publish all contracts is detrimental to the government's image.
"On the other hand, the failure to publish complete details of all contracts will only lead to increased suspicion that the government has plenty t hide, and has no political will to wipe out wastages, inefficiencies and corruption associated with rent-seeking and patronage,” he said.
Less than a week after its launch, the government’s new MyProcurement tender portal has come under criticism for its lack of details which makes it difficult for the public to justify some of the tenders that have been awarded.
The RM6.5 billion contract to supply fresh rations to the armed forces in three northern states that was listed on the government’s new tender portal was recently amended to RM6.5 million after it was questioned by Pakatan Rakyat.
“The Chief Executive officer of Pemandu, Datuk Seri Idris Jala, who is in-charge of the government’s transformation programme had on national radio BFM89.9 insisted that all data in the portal are accurate despite being questioned repeatedly by the interviewer.
“However he was proven wrong almost immediately when the Ministry of Defence corrected the contract value amount by 3 decimal places, from RM6.47 billion to RM6.47 million as updated on the MyProcurement portal.
“If it had been the only mistake in the portal, it may be excused. However, it will most certainly not be anywhere near the last,” he said.
Pua said that the government should shut down the portal to save the country from further embarrassment.
“We call upon the Minster in-charge of the Government Transformation Programme, Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon to save the government from further embarrassment by taking down the portal immediately and re-launch it at a later date only after cleaning up the data with a fine-tooth comb and including all contracts awarded by all ministries in the system.
“Otherwise, it makes a complete mockery of the Prime Minister’s promise of performance now to all Malaysians,” he said.
MI
07/04/10
DAP national publicity chief Tony Pua said the failure to publish complete details of all contracts will only lead to more suspicion that the government has plenty to hide and increase belief that it lacks the political will to clean up the procurement system.
“Only 16 ministries out of 26 ministries have any contracts posted on the portal," the Petaling Jaya Utara MP told reporters in Parliament.
He also disclosed that 10 ministries; Transport, Energy, Green Technology and Water, Plantation Industries and Commodities, Natural Resources and Environment, Agriculture, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Housing and Local government, Women, Family and Community Development and Foreign Affairs have not made public any contracts which have been awarded by the ministries.
Pua said that Minisry of Rural and Regional Development has only disclosed RM15.3 million of RM2.64 billion spent which accounted for less than 0.6 per cent of all purchases while the Prime Minister’s Department also only revealed 1.5 per cent of its total expenditure or RM174.8 million from the RM11.2 billion allocation.
“I’ve even been made to understand that certain ministries have objected vehemently to publishing information on certain types of contracts, for reasons possibly best explained by Prime Minister himself.
“By not being transparent and not publishing all contracts which have been awarded by the government, it will be impossible for Malaysians to determine if the government has been fair and judicious in the award of its contract," he added.
Pua said the reticence to publish all contracts is detrimental to the government's image.
"On the other hand, the failure to publish complete details of all contracts will only lead to increased suspicion that the government has plenty t hide, and has no political will to wipe out wastages, inefficiencies and corruption associated with rent-seeking and patronage,” he said.
Less than a week after its launch, the government’s new MyProcurement tender portal has come under criticism for its lack of details which makes it difficult for the public to justify some of the tenders that have been awarded.
The RM6.5 billion contract to supply fresh rations to the armed forces in three northern states that was listed on the government’s new tender portal was recently amended to RM6.5 million after it was questioned by Pakatan Rakyat.
“The Chief Executive officer of Pemandu, Datuk Seri Idris Jala, who is in-charge of the government’s transformation programme had on national radio BFM89.9 insisted that all data in the portal are accurate despite being questioned repeatedly by the interviewer.
“However he was proven wrong almost immediately when the Ministry of Defence corrected the contract value amount by 3 decimal places, from RM6.47 billion to RM6.47 million as updated on the MyProcurement portal.
“If it had been the only mistake in the portal, it may be excused. However, it will most certainly not be anywhere near the last,” he said.
Pua said that the government should shut down the portal to save the country from further embarrassment.
“We call upon the Minster in-charge of the Government Transformation Programme, Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon to save the government from further embarrassment by taking down the portal immediately and re-launch it at a later date only after cleaning up the data with a fine-tooth comb and including all contracts awarded by all ministries in the system.
“Otherwise, it makes a complete mockery of the Prime Minister’s promise of performance now to all Malaysians,” he said.
MI
07/04/10
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