KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) should investigate the Finance Ministry’s alleged cancellation of a “letter of intent” (LOI) to a joint venture company between the Berjaya Group and Naza Group during Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s tenure as prime minister, MP Wong Kah Woh said today.
Wong, who is also former chair of parliamentary watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee, said Berjaya Group founder Tan Sri Vincent Tan’s allegations yesterday were very serious.
Yesterday, Tan said the joint venture company had filed a lawsuit against the Finance Ministry over the latter’s termination of the LOI — to supply vehicles to the government — three months after Muhyiddin took over in 2020 from Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister. He claimed that the issuance of the LOI meant that the Berjaya-Naza joint venture had been selected for the contract as it was the lowest bidder.
Tan also claimed that the contract was later awarded to Spanco Sdn Bhd, which he alleged was RM700 million more than what the Berjaya-Naza joint venture had bid for.
Wong claimed that Tan’s allegations showed that there was non-compliance in the government’s tender process in 2020 under the Muhyiddin administration.
“MACC has to carry out investigations on this immediately,” the Taiping MP said in a statement today.
Wong listed the matters that should be investigated as being why the issued LOI was cancelled, what was the decision of the tender committee at that time, why the government’s 2019 tender outcome was not complied with.
He also urged for an investigation on what was the Muhyiddin-led government’s justification to eventually give the contract to Spanco which was alleged to have a bid costing RM700 million more.
Spanco was previously reported to have had a 25-year concession from the government since 1994 to supply, manage and maintain vehicles for the government, with the contract having expired in 2018. Its service was later extended while waiting for a new concession holder to be appointed.
According to previous news reports, the government in 2018 launched its tender process for a new 15-year contract for 12,500 vehicles, with a yearly value of RM300 million starting after the fifth year, and was said to have received eight requests for proposals from eight companies.
The Berjaya Group and Naza Group initially had a 49 and 51 per cent stake respectively in the joint venture firm, but Tan yesterday said that the Berjaya Group now has a reduced stake at 40 per cent.
