KUALA LUMPUR: The government, through the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry, has allegedly awarded a contract to import eggs from India through direct negotiations to a company owned by a carpet trader.
Perikatan Nasional (PN) information chief Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said the direct award of the contract contradicted the promise of an open tender process made by the unity government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
"Previously, the government said it wanted to make an open tender and there will be no direct award.
"However, when the (PN) leadership and members of parliament challenged Dewan Rakyat to disclose the company that was awarded the contract to bring eggs from India to Malaysia, they did not receive an answer.
"So, we have to expose this," he said in his speech during a ceramah held at Pas' base in Taman Melewar last night, as reported by an online news portal today.
Azmin also claimed that the minister in charge, Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu, brought the businessman involved in his visit to India recently.
On Feb 28, Mohamad was reported to have said that only one company was permitted to import eggs from India and that the move was taken to deal with the lack of supply of eggs in the local market.
However, when answering a question from Putrajaya MP Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin in parliament, Mohamad admitted that the company that imported eggs from India did not go through the open tender process because it was a 'special case'.