KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 — Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng today urged Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz to correct the “list” that was released on Wednesday pertaining to the 101 projects said to be approved by the previous Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration through direct negotiations.
Lim said it was vital for Tengku Zafrul to do so to prove that he is not politicising the issue.
“He (Tengku Zafrul) needs to make corrections and take out sums that should not have been included in the list,” Lim told reporters during a press conference at the DAP headquarter here today.
Lim cited two sums included in Tengku Zafrul's list — the Klang Valley Double Track (Phase II) project (KVDT2) and the Fifa World Cup 2018 live telecast worth RM4.475 billion and RM29.9 million respectively.
“Tengku Zafrul needs to remove the Fifa World Cup 2018 live telecast cost from his list because the government did not fork out a single cent.
“The tender was between Fifa (Federation Internationale de Football Association) and the vendor in Malaysia (Sports Media and Distributor), so an open tender could have been done for that by the Multimedia and Communications Ministry then.
“Instead, the government managed to generate RM3.3 million revenue from advertisements and sponsors of the live telecast event and it has been channeled to consolidated funds,” said Lim.
As for the KVTD2, Lim said the contract was signed one day before Parliament was dissolved in 2018, and so this should not have been included in Tengku Zafrul's list as direct tenders approved by Pakatan Harapan.
“Yesterday all the PH former ministers had already explained what were the projects which were listed in Tengku Zafrul's list.
“The only ministers who have yet to offer an explanation are the four ministers who betrayed PH,” he said.
Lim was referring to former home minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (RM517.7 million), Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin (RM170.8 million), former economic affairs minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali (RM1.2 million) and former rural development minister Datuk Seri Rina Harun (RM7.36 million).
On Wednesday, Tengku Zafrul released the full list of 101 projects that were allegedly awarded through direct negotiations under the PH administration.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has confirmed earlier this week that it will be looking into the direct negotiation contracts for possible corruption, embezzlement or abuse of power after several NGOs had filed complaints.
