KUALA LUMPUR: The Economic Planning Unit (EPU) has continued to come under fire with Perkasa joining in the fray to question the purported decision to call for open tender for the government’s fuel rationalisation programme.
Its deputy president, Datuk Zulkifli Noordin, said Minister in the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar must explain why the EPU was calling for tenders after the bidding companies had submitted their proposals to the Fiscal Policy Committee and the cabinet.
He said the committee and cabinet had even agreed to the proposed concepts submitted by the bidders. Among them are Pos Malaysia Bhd and Datasonic Group Bhd. The others are MyEG Services Bhd, IRIS Corporation Bhd, ICASH Global Rewards Sdn Bhd and MOL AccessPortal Sdn Bhd.
“Wahid’s decision to call for tenders can seen as a delay tactic to allow some parties to photocopy the proposals. It can also be seen as an attempt to allow other friendly private companies to submit their bids through the back door and straight to decision-making stage.”
He said yesterday he would also like to challenge Wahid to prove his claims wrong by seeking a legal redress against him.
Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil had last Saturday expressed similar concern, saying she was worried about the possibility that recommendations from the private sector in the form of ideas, proposals, projects and programmes under the EPU were allowed to be used or copied by other quarters.
“This practice, if true, does not reflect the transparency and integrity of the administration and management of EPU,” Shahrizat was quoted as saying.
She had said such a practice would also hamper the efforts of those who have ideas to help the government improve the economy, including the recommendations made by women entrepreneurs.
Last week, Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance president Tan Sri Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas had said that EPU must be fair to the seven companies bidding to managed the programme.
He said the EPU must consider that there were companies that had forked out million of ringgit and hours of manpower to prepare and fine-tune proposal for the programme.
“As an observer, it is not fair if the EPU decides to change the appointment method of the concessionaire for the programme when it initially requested the bidders to submit their proposals,” he was quoted as saying.
Megat Najmuddin was responding a financial daily’s report, quoting sources that the government had revised its plan to award the project, aimed at plugging loopholes in the subsidised fuel distribution system to more than 10 million Malaysians, to one of the seven bidding companies.
He had also raised concerns that some unscrupulous firms would plagiarise the proposals submitted by the seven bidders if the method to appoint the concessionaire for the programme was changed.