The government has to explain why it gave a 15-year contract extension to Puspakom when the cabinet decided to end its monopoly.
Nurul, who pushed for an open tender, was responding to a FMT article on Monday which reported that the extension went against a Cabinet decision in 2009 to end Puspakom’s monopoly.
“The only right thing for the goverment to do is to diclose the reasons for the termination (of its own decision) and immediately conduct an open tender exercise to ensure that the best company does the job,” she said.
Nurul, the Lembah Pantai MP, said when the extension for Puspakom’s concession was first granted, she had questioned the transport ministry on the reasons for rewarding a company “plagued by numerous cases of corruption, mismanagement and less than desirable quality service”.
“The then deputy minister defended the extension, clearly siding with Puspakom to maintain its initial ‘investment’ while turning a blind eye to Puspakom’s transgressions,” she said.
Nurul added that she was most alarmed by the lack of transparency in the awarding and termination of contracts.
“There is no transparency. This clearly won’t benefit Malaysians, who fall prey to Puspakom’s mismananagement on a daily basis,” she said.
She questioned why there was a need to even give Puspakom five more years on the basis that Puspakom had already invested a certain amount.
“Again, there is little thought given to people’s right to efficient and honest services,” she said.
In the FMT’s report, it was revealed that Puspakom’s exclusive right to inspect vehicles was supposed to end when its 15-year contract expired in 2009 as decided by the Cabinet.
The Cabinet had also decided to take into account Puspakom’s investments and gave it a five-year interim extension till 2014, before others could bid for the contract.
However, this decision was overruled now and Puspakom had renewed its concession with the government for another 15 years (until 2024).
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