DAP has questioned if Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's honorary doctorate from the United States Sports Academy (USSA) was awarded yesterday in exchange for a RM22.9 million government contract.

NONE Party election strategist Ong Kian Ming (left) alleged that the move was related to a deal involving the Education Ministry, through a company linked to an Umno leader, and USSA.

The company, said Ong, was acting as an agent for the USSA and had acquired the government contract via direct negotiations.

"Is this the price the Malaysian taxpayers have to pay so that our education minister can obtain an honorary doctorate?" he said at a press conference today.

Malaysiakin i is withholding the name of the company and the Umno leader involved pending comment.

Ong claimed that the eight-month contract to the company is meant to train 1,000 physical education (PE) teachers under an International Diploma in Physical Education and Scholastic Sports programme.

Trainers from USSA were brought in under the contract, which runs from June 19 last year until Feb 18 this year. It is unclear what role the company plays under the contract.

However, Ong argued that the programme is too expensive at RM22,900 per person. In comparison, he pointed out that Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) offers a Diploma in Sports Studies programme for only RM5,709 over six semesters.

“The awarding of this contract is yet another example of BN’s cakap tak serupa bikin (not practicing as one preaches), where the prime minister preachers transparency on one hand while members of his cabinet do the complete opposite by awarding contracts to cronies at vastly inflated prices,” he said.

'No open tender was called'

When asked if the US-based programme may have been superior to UiTM’s programme and hence justifies the cost, Ong said this remains unknown because no open tender was called, hence no comparison could be made between USSA’s offer and what local institutions could offer.

Ong also questioned USSA’s ability to train 1,000 teachers and the company’s experience in dealing with the matter.

He claimed that USSA primarily teaches through online distance learning and its campus consists of only a single building and does not have facilities such as a track and field.

In addition, he said USSA currently has less than 600 students, quoting the website CollegeRecruiter.com . Therefore, it may not have enough faculty members to train 1,000 teachers.

“If the university can only cope with about 600 online students, how can they manage to train 1,000 PE teachers in a face-to-face medium?” he said.

As for the company, he quoted its website saying that its chairperson is an Umno leader and claimed that it does not have experience in education.

“Why is the contract awarded to a company that basically sells sports equipment, whose chairperson happens to be (an Umno leader)?

“This is highly troubling. This is something that our deputy prime minister and education minister needs to explain,” he said.