Covid-19 procurement done by the book - Khairy

Former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin has maintained that the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines was done by the book.

According to him, all decisions pertaining to the procurement had the approval of the Finance Ministry and the cabinet, after getting feedback from all the relevant agencies.

"All the decisions were in order and followed the standard procedures of Covid-19 vaccine procurement, its related equipment and service providers, to handle the pandemic in Malaysia," Khairy was quoted as telling Sinar Harian.

He further noted that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had also previously investigated the vaccine procurement and found it to be in order.

Khairy (above) was responding to the statement by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim yesterday that the government will soon table a White Paper on Covid-19 vaccine procurement after improprieties were found in it.

According to Anwar, the procurement was signed by the minister without the agreement of the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC), among other issues.

'Waste of time'

Meanwhile, Marzuki Mohamad, the former principal private secretary to Muhyiddin Yassin, has dubbed the White Paper on vaccine procurement a "waste of time", as the issue had been previously cleared by the PAC.

"The matter was brought to the cabinet for approval. Usually, the agencies involved will give feedback on the cabinet's memorandum for vaccine procurement, and I believe the AGC is one of the agencies.

"Furthermore, the vaccine procurement issue was brought to the PAC's attention in 2021, and in a 521-page report, PAC confirmed that the procurement was done by the book.

"The PAC chairperson then was DAP MP Wong Kah Woh, and (Anwar's daughter) Nurul Izzah was a PAC member then. So, where do we throw the 521-page report now?" Marzuki said in a statement on Facebook.

"This is all a waste of time," he chided.

In January 2021, Wong said that PAC was satisfied with the government's plans to procure Covid-19 vaccines and would observe the non-disclosure agreements (NDA) with the vaccine manufacturers.

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