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PETALING JAYA: Former Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng was the one who awarded the two projects worth more than RM170 thousand under the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) without open tender, says Zuraida Kamarudin.
The minister said she had investigated the matter and could now confirm that it was Lim who approved the projects through direct negotiation without her 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, assumed directly by the former finance minister himself,” he said in a statement on Friday (August 28).
Prior to this, Zuraida had said on Thursday (August 27) that he would investigate the matter as the contracts for the two projects under his ministry were awarded without his knowledge.
Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Aziz had recently revealed in Parliament that during the reign of the Pakatan Harapan government 161 contracts worth RM6.61 billion were awarded through 20 ministries through direct negotiations.
Zuraida said his findings contradicted claims by Pakatan politicians that his ministry had initiated direct negotiation of the Taman Beringin solid waste project.
He stated that Tamrin Tun Ghafar, the advisor to the company involved, Bumi Segar Indah, met with Lim on November 28, 2018.
“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 KPKT to present and follow up with a formal proposal.
Subsequently, the project was approved by the Ministry of Finance in a letter dated February 20, 2019, addressed to the secretary general of the ministry.
Likewise, the Century software project, which involves five different ministries, was also approved by the Ministry of Finance.
“I hope that in the future, the politicians and former ministers of Pakatan will verify their facts before misleading the public,” he said.
Zuraida was responding to PKR Secretary General Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution’s claim that he was sleeping at his job when he said he was not aware of the award of contracts.
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