PUTRAJAYA: The Natural Resources and Environment Sustainability Ministry has denied claims on the alleged serious corruption practices involving a flood mitigation plan worth more than RM16 billion.
Its minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said the claims made by Bersatu Information Committee member Badrul Hisham Shaharin, better known as Chegu Bard, were baseless, where the latter had also shown his lack of understanding of the government's project procurement process.
Nik Nazmi said that he would take legal action against Chegu Bard over the allegations made.
"This is not the first time Chegu Bard has come up with such baseless and false accusations. He has also lost several lawsuits for defamation.
"His accusations are unfounded and indicate his lack of understanding of government procurement processes and budget allocations.
"Hence, I vehemently deny these malicious accusations and will take legal action against him in the nearest time," he said in a statement, today.
Yesterday, Chegu Bard lodged a police report and claimed that there were serious corruption practices involving a flood mitigation plan worth more than RM16 billion. (Reference: https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2023/12/992689/dark-secrets-flood-mit...)
He also claimed that a company registered as a cosmetic company has allegedly doubled up as a flood mitigation consultant siphoning millions of ringgit from an RM16 billion government flood mitigation project meant to address the flooding issue nationwide.
He added that no open tenders were made for the project, and names of companies awarded were also pre-selected, with commission terms of as high as eight per cent to be given as consultancy fees to the law firms.
He said the trouble started brewing in November last year when former Environment and Water Minister Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man was accused of awarding a company an RM7bil flood mitigation project.
Following this, Nik Nazmi added that the government has also re-examined flood mitigation project proposals that highly prioritise critical areas with an overall allocation of RM11.8 billion from the Finance Ministry for 33 projects.
"Nearly all government flood mitigation projects are still under procurement process, with only 19 projects receiving the Letter of Acceptance (LOA) this year.
"No funds have been allocated for development expenditure. Furthermore, the projects follow a transparent procurement process involving the Finance Ministry's governance procedure and go through the Procurement Board meetings, which I am not personally involved in.
"Hence, the claims that the projects amount to RM16.6 billion and involve unknown companies where certain individuals receive commissions as proxies for the minister are baseless and malicious."