KUALA LUMPUR, August 29 — Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng has challenged Housing and Local Government Minister (KPKT) Zuraida Kamaruddin to publicly disclosed the letters involved in the RM170.3 million direct award granted by her ministry when Pakatan Harapan (PH) was in power.
The Bagan MP was responding to Zuraida’s statement yesterday where she claimed that Lim was the one who approved the Taman Beringin Solid Waste Project’s direct negotiation.
“I firmly state that normal procedures require the ministry is question will submit a request for direct negotiation to the Finance Ministry (MOF). Therefore, there must have been a letter from KPKT to the MOF.
“This sort of requests from KPKT to the MOF should be submitted by a senior KPKT officer in 2018 and penned by a senior officer holding the rank of KPKT secretary-general in light of the fact that this project involves the huge sum of RM170.3 million.
“Zuraida cannot deny the fact that there was a KPKT letter of request and I challenge her to reveal this letter so the public can know the real story,” said Lim adding that she should also disclose any letters that he sent to her ministry.
He also expressed doubt that her ministry’s secretary-general would have written an official letter in 2018 to MOF without the knowledge or consent of Minister Zuraida.
The Opposition lawmaker added that in the event the secretary-general did send a letter without Zuraida’s knowledge, disciplinary action must be taken.
Furthermore, he pointed out that if Zuraida had been ignorant of her secretary-general’s own actions, it means that she is not fit to be a minister.
Similarly, Lim also challenged Finance Minister Datuk Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz to reveal all the direct negotiations that was successfully awarded during Barisan Nasional’s time in power.
