Energy, Communications and Multimedia Minister Leo Moggie has been urged to stop fudging on the Mitsui kickbacks scandal. It was alleged that the Japanese company paid RM10.6 million in kickbacks to Telekom Malaysia to win a switchboard contract.

DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang today accused Moggie for trying to mislead Parliament and for being "economical" on details of the scandal.

Moggie had told Parliament on Tuesday that Mitsui was not on the list of nine companies that bid for the switchboard contract in an open tender.

Lim said that Moggie's statement gave the nation the impression that Mitsui had been awarded the switchboard contract although it was not one of the nine companies which participated in the open tender.

However, Moggie called a press conference late yesterday to clarify that Mitsui was never awarded the contract as the company did not even bid for it, therefore the question of awarding the contract to it did not even arise.

"I am amazed that a senior Cabinet minister like Moggie could make such a colossal blunder in Parliament," Lim said.

"Moggie had either wanted to mislead Parliament on the issue with his cryptic explanation or at best extremely careless in giving information on the kickbacks allegation," continued Lim.

Lim added that if Mitsui was never involved in any manner in the switchboard contract, then Moggie should have come out with a direct denial of the allegation.

There would be no need for the Anti-Corruption Agency to waste its time to conduct any investigation or Telekom to conduct its own internal investigation into the allegation, he said.

"But from the drips of information let out by Moggie, it is obvious that it is not that clear-cut that Mitsui was completely uninvolved in the allegation and that it could be dismissed with a straightforward denial," said Lim.

Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun had reported on Feb 11 that Mitsui paid 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".

At the media conference yesterday, Moggie revealed that five of the nine companies that bid in the open tender won the switchboard supply contract. The companies, he said, were Perwira Ericson, Pernas NEC, Alcatel CIT, Marubeni Corporation and Sapura Holdings. He insisted that Mitsui had nothing to do with the bid.

In a statement issued yesterday, Mitsui denied paying kickbacks to Telekom. However, it added that it made its bid during the open tender through a subsidiary in Malaysia, Pernas NEC, which was a joint venture with NEC Corp.

Lim told malaysiakini that there was no reason for Moggie to be unaware that Pernas NEC was a subsidiary of Mitsui and that it had made the bid with equipment supplier NEC Japan.

"This is another black mark for Moggie. If he was unaware of it (Pernas NEC) being a subsidiary of Mitsui, then something is wrong. And if he was aware of it, but is pretending not to be, then something must be even more wrong," said Lim.

Lim added that Moggie's statements had given the impression that the Minister was trying to conceal rather than reveal the full facts on the switchboard contract.

"There must be a record in Telekom or the Finance Ministry on the open tender. Moggie should speak up in the full spirit of transparency," Lim said.

"He should give support to a parliamentary motion to get to the bottom of the kickbacks allegation by establishing an all-party parliamentary committee of inquiry and for Parliament to make a formal request for full co-operation of the Japanese government to release and make available all records and documents of the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau on the matter," added Lim.

Meanwhile attempts to reach Pernas NEC for comments were unsuccessful. Repeated telephone calls made by malaysiakini were received by an answering machine.