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KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Tamrin Abdul Ghafar, son of the late former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Ghafar Baba, has questioned attempts to link him to the controversy over projects awarded without tender under the Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
Tamrin, the advisor to Bumi Segar Indah, who was awarded a solid waste project, was incredulous that Zuraida Kamaruddin was not aware of her own ministry’s projects.
“It is impossible for a minister to know nothing about the matter, when the Ministry of Finance only acts in accordance with the recommendations of the ministry.
“I will let my lawyers decide the next course of action,” he said in a statement on Saturday (August 29).
On Friday, Zuraida accused former Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng of being the one who awarded the two projects worth more than RM170,000 under the ministry without open tendering.
He said that he had investigated the matter and could now confirm that it was Lim who approved the projects through direct negotiation without his knowledge.
“As promised, I have done my research and now announce what I have discovered.
“The awarded projects are the Taman Beringin solid waste project (RM 170,294,400.00) and the Century software accounting system (worth RM 501,206.37).
“I now confirm that this direct negotiation was, in fact, directly assumed by the former finance minister himself,” he said.
Zuraida said his findings contradicted claims by Pakatan politicians that his ministry had initiated direct negotiation of the Taman Beringin solid waste project.
She claimed that Tamrin met with Lim on November 28, 2018 in her capacity as an advisor to the company.
“It was at this meeting that Lim discussed the renegotiation of the project and agreed to reduce the cost of the tip fee by 10% less than the original cost, supposedly to save the government money.
Lim then recommended that Bumi Segar Indah approach the ministry to present and follow up on a formal proposal.
“I hope that in the future, the politicians and former ministers of Pakatan will verify their facts before misleading the public,” he said.
The Ministry of Finance, prior to this, had published in the Dewan Rakyat a list of all 101 government projects worth RM6.61bil awarded through direct negotiation that were under the purview of the Pakatan Harapan administration.
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