There were no financial irregularities involved in the purchase of two pairs of night vision binoculars by the Marine Park Department at 10 times higher than the market price.

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) deputy chief commissioner Mohd Shukri Abdull said on the contrary, investigations revealed that the blunder occurred due to failure to carry out a market survey.

The department had ignored the Treasury procurement procedures as the survey should have taken into account the quality, price, usage and maintenance of the equipment, he told a news conference in Putrajaya today.

The MACC conducted investigations into the Auditor-General’s Report 2010 over the department's purchase of several equipment, which were overpriced by between 177 and 2,805 percent.

Mohd Shukri said disciplinary action should be taken against the officer involved, including imposing a surcharge on him for not checking market prices, resulting in the government incurring a loss, while the supplier should be blacklisted for manipulating prices.

NONE The binoculars were bought as part of a package, together with boats, laptops, televisions, printers and other equipment through a tender procurement process, he said.

Mohd Shukri said three out of six companies, which had bid for the tender, were short-listed and one of them, which quoted RM7.5 million, was eventually selected.

“The tender quoted for RM7.5 million was lower than the ceiling price of RM10 million approved by the government and it was considered cheap, if calculated as a package.

“However, several items, especially two binoculars, cost more than RM100,000 compared with the market price of only about RM10,000,” he said.

He said the MACC would disclose its investigations into disclosures made by the Auditor-General’s report 2010 from time to time.

Sixteen people had been charged over the A-G’s Report 2008 and three over the A-G’s report 2009, he said, adding that the MACC had opened 36 investigation papers over the A-G’s Report 2010.

- Bernama

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