DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang today accused Energy, Communications and Multimedia Minister Leo Moggie for withholding information from Parliament on the Mitsui scandal.

The Japanese company allegedly paid RM10.6 million in kickbacks to Telekom Malaysia to win a switchboard contract.

Moggie told Parliament yesterday that preliminary findings by Telekom showed that the open tender process for the switchboard supply deal was advertised on Jan 18, 1991, in accordance with the regulations set by the Finance Ministry. The minister added that nine applications were received but Mitsui was not one of them.

"Moggie had acted most irresponsibly in not briefing Parliament the full details about the switchboard contract, and in particular why Mitsui was awarded the contract although it was not one of the nine companies which had taken part in the open tender," Lim said.

Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun had reported on Feb 11 that Mitsui paid RM10.64 million in kickbacks to Telekom via a consultant firm in Malaysia that turned out to be a dummy company in order to secure the contract.

The daily added that Mitsui registered the kickbacks, paid in 1997 to the Malaysian agent under a consultant contract as "commissions" which were construed as "losses", but the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau determined that the payments were rewards for the orders and were categorised as taxable "entertainment fees".

Moggie disclosed yesterday that the company which won the bid was decided by the Finance Ministry in 1992 and allegations of kickbacks was under investigation by the ACA and it was best to wait for the results instead of making assumptions.

Lim said that Moggie should give more information to Parliament, such as the identity of the nine companies which took part in the open tender, their respective quotations, and how Mitsui came into the picture and details of its bid.

In a related development, Lim also called on Moggie to enlighten Parliament as to whether investigations into the kickbacks were only being conducted by the Anti-Corruption Agency or there were two separate investigations going on at the same time, Telekom and ACA.

Lim said that Telekom chief executive Wira Mohamed Said Mohamed Ali's statement yesterday that Telekom would only consider meeting top Mitsui officials after the completion of its own internal investigation into the kickbacks allegation, was at odds with the comment by Telekom executive director and chief operating officer, Dr. Abdul Rahim Daud.

Abdul Rahim told the New Straits Times last Wednesday that Telekom had no further comment as the matter was now in the hands of the ACA, indicating that all the investigation would now be conducted by the ACA.