Senior minister roasted over Muhyiddin-era abandoned project

Kangar MP Amin Ahmad today took potshots at senior minister (education) Radzi Jidin who was in Perlis yesterday visiting abandoned school projects.

One of the projects was the Perlis Sports School. Radzi had posted photographs of his visit to the project site on Twitter.

Following this, Amin, a PKR politician, pointed out that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was the education minister at the relevant time.

Radzi had promised that works on the school would continue next year.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, Amin said the school was among Muhyiddin's failures as education minister because the wrong contractor was chosen.

According to a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report published on Nov 5, the contract was awarded, without an open tender process, to Pantas Technologies Sdn Bhd on Jan 11, 2013.

This school was to train athletes in track and field, badminton, archery, sepak takraw, hockey and golf.

The project was supposed to be completed on Aug 1, 2014, and even after a 109-day extension, only 49 percent of the works were completed.

To be fair to Muhyiddin, the PAC established that all 10 contractors recommended by the Education Ministry were not chosen by the Finance Ministry.

"The Finance Ministry approved the project through a limited tender among seven companies nominated by one company (Bumi Jepalang Sdn Bhd) that was listed by the Finance Ministry," according to the PAC report.

Pantas Technologies was reappointed as the contractor on Jan 11, 2018. This time, there wasn't even a limited tender as the contract was awarded through direct negotiations.

When both contracts were awarded, Najib Abdul Razak was the finance minister. This does not imply any wrongdoing on his part.

According to the PAC, Pantas Technologies had only completed 4.5 percent of the work as of Dec 31, 2018, when they were expected to be at 36 percent.

They were supposed to complete the job on Feb 2, 2020.

The PAC concluded that although the Finance Ministry's procurement division had rejected Bumi Jelapang's list of seven companies, the company appealed to the finance minister and got its way.

"This gave room for the appointment of a contractor that was not qualified," the PAC said.

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