KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — PAS has today accused Pakatan Harapan (PH) of “lying to voters” after Putrajaya’s claim that it had awarded RM6.61 billion worth of projects through direct negotiation deals.
The Islamist party’s information chief Kamaruzaman Mohamad said the pact had only made a promise against such deals in its general election campaign as mere rhetoric.
“The issue of the corruption behind the Penang undersea tunnel worth RM6.3 billion has not yet been resolved, and former finance minister Lim Guan Eng has once again lied to the people over the direct negotiation projects in Parliament yesterday,” he said in a statement.
“Clearly the slogans during the 14th general election aimed at garnering votes is merely rhetoric.
“The pledge in Pakatan’s manifesto of open tenders was not fulfilled, and indeed approved with 101 projects worth RM6.61 billion through direct negotiations,” he said.
Earlier today, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission confirmed it received memorandums from several NGOs urging them to look into the matter.
The commission said it will launch investigations to determine if corruption, embezzlement or abuse of power was involved in the direct negotiation contracts.
Yesterday during the wind-up of the Temporary Measures for Government Financing (Covid-19) 2020 in Parliament, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz said such direct negotiations usually occur in specific instances with ministry approval, that have urgent requirements which affect government services and interest.
Pakatan Harapan leaders have since called for Tengku Zafrul to come clean about the RM6.61 billion figure revealed in Parliament yesterday.
Lim also alleged whether Zafrul was afraid to reveal the list of tenders fearing that it would embarrass current ministers who were ministers during the PH administration who had also applied for projects via direct negotiations, including Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
