PUTRAJAYA: Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) Minister Khairy Jamaluddin is prepared to brief the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) members on all matters related to the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines including their detailed costs.
Khairy however said the PAC members must be willing to keep the terms classified, as the Malaysian government had signed a nondisclosure agreement with the companies involved.
"All (respective) governments in the world are subject to the nondisclosure agreement, and if the agreement's conditions are breached, it could affect our deals with the companies.
"It is their terms, not ours. We want to announce it but we must respect the deal," he said during a special press conference held at the ministry's headquarters today.
Following the nondisclosure agreement over procurement of the Covid-19 vaccines, Khairy said he would be willing to brief the PAC members on the condition that they keep details of the agreement confidential.
"I have made the offer to PAC chairman, Ipoh Timur Member of Parliament Wong Kah Woh from DAP, to brief its members comprising the opposition and government MPs," he said.
Yesterday, DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang's reiterated his claims that Malaysian government was paying 20 times more than Belgium for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Lim said the public was entitled to be informed on how much government had paid for the vaccine amid growing confusion over the price.
Recently, Belgium's budget state secretary, Eva De Bleeker revealed the list of cost for Covid-19 vaccines including the one produced by Pfizer, which was agreed by the European Union (EU), on her Twitter account.
Khairy added that another pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca had given its assurance that it would charge the procurement of the Covid-19 vaccines at cost price.