DAP’s Petaling Jaya Utara parliamentarian Tony Pua today questioned the whereabouts of the financial data for a large bulk of government ministerial allocations.

Pua said out of the 26 federal ministries, only 16 had their contracts listed on the government's new tender information website - MyProcurement. But even what was listed was only a portion of the contracts as opposed to the actual allocations.

dap graftbuster pc 230409 tony pua In another swipe at the newly-launched government procurement transparency site, Pua ( right ) pointed out that the lack of information about the contracts was inexcusable.

"The (list) of contracts published in the system is not even complete," he said quoting two examples:

  • the Rural and Regional Development ministry had a budget of RM2.64 billion in 2009 but only RM15.3 million of it was disclosed (0.6 percent);

  • The Prime Minister's Department had a budget of RM11.2 billion but only RM174.8 million was disclosed (1.5 percent)

    • The only exception, Pua added, may be the Works Ministry which disclosed RM3.78 billion of their contracts. However, he said this may involve ‘more decimal place errors’ since the ministry's allocation was only RM3.31 billion.

    Decimal place errors?

    The kinks in the systems, Pua alleged, proved that the government was ‘publishing inaccurate, insufficient and incomplete date on the contracts’.

    "(If) the government hopes to convince intelligent Malaysians that it has successfully transformed itself to be open and transparent, then it is sadly mistaken."

    goverment projects 251004 Pua has been on a roll in exposing the flaws in the government’s transparency initiative under the Najib administration.

    Approached by Malaysiakini later, Pua said, "I don't know where the rest of the allocations for the ministries have gone to unless these are directly-negotiated contracts which Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has said will not be disclosed’.

    Asked about his promise to reveal more details about projects awarded to government cronies as listed in the portal, Pua said that he would do that tomorrow

    "I have disclosed details on missing ministerial allocations today. I shall reveal details on these crony projects tomorrow."

    Suspicious contract

    Pua also hit out at the government’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit Pemandu CEO Idris Jala ( right, below ) who insisted in a radio interview that all data on the portal was accurate.

    NONE "He (Idris) was proven wrong almost immediately when the Defence MInistry corrected one contract value by three decimal places from RM6.47 billion to RM6.47 million."

    Pua pointed out another suspicious contract in excess RM77 billion to build a hostel for two hundred students at a school in Terengganu.

    "It will certainly be cheaper to buy a RM380,000 luxury bungalow for each of them," he quipped.