KUALA LUMPUR, August 2 — Khairy Jamaluddin cried foul in Dewan Rakyat today after Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Steven Sim said the ministry, which was under Khairy, was tainted by corruption.

The Rembau MP attempted to set Sim and the current Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman straight after Sim told a press conference earlier that most contracts awarded by the ministry last year were via direct negotiations.

"I support your initiative to make the ministry better, but you don’t have to do it at the expense at smearing other people especially when the facts are not correct. Open tender is good but you have to see if they (contractors) can execute or not.

"I hope KBS will be the best ministry in terms of governance and I am ready to give my cooperation with all parties,” said Khairy, referring to the Bahasa Malaysia acronym for the ministry.

Khairy had earlier said the directly-awarded contracts were not an automatic sign of corruption.

In clarifying his past position, Khairy said in the House, he had never retracted any allocation from a body or an individual when he was the minister, even against those who were critical of the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

Among other issues raised that Khairy had corrected were the mismanagement of funds by a former financial secretary, which he said the accurate amount involved was RM38 million and not RM100 million as cited by Sim.

"Even though the number is still big (RM38 million), you must make sure when you come out with statements, it has to be factually correct. Lesson number one,” he said.

He also said the cancellation of the Corruption Risk Management (CRM), which he said was cited by Sim to have been called off by the former federal administration, was incorrect as the orders were made by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

"On May 18, 2017, former MACC deputy chief had issued a letter for the CIP (Corruption Perception Index) and the CRM to be suspended to a later date. Not the old administration, but MACC.

"Lesson number two, do not make insinuation that is inaccurate,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.

In response, Syed Saddiq clarified that the statement made earlier was not necessarily linked to the Rembau MP.

He said the open tender process has to be improved from top to bottom as it involves the Finance Ministry as well.

"Rembau MP had followed the process by going through the Finance Ministry, and while it was right, it was also the source of the problem.

"I would like to stress that the improvements do not only involve one ministry,” he said.