Tengku Zafrul keeps mum on Spanco case

Investment, Trade, and Industry Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz has declined to comment about his involvement in the vehicle fleet concession awarded to Spanco Sdn Bhd.

The concession was given to the company to procure and maintain the government’s fleet vehicles in 2020 during former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s administration when Zafrul was the finance minister.

“(This event) has nothing to do with that. I have no comment on that. You ask the finance minister of today,” he said during a press conference after the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) Annual Media Conference 2024 today.

Last Saturday, Muhyiddin, on his Facebook page, denounced allegations of wrongdoings surrounding the concession and called it part of a series of ‘character assassination’ attempts to tarnish his reputation.

After Spanco’s 26-year concession ended in 2019, an open tender was launched to award the contract for the next 15 years.

Although Berjaya Group and Naza Sdn Bhd formed a concession to bid and reportedly managed to secure a letter of intent (LOI) for the contract as they made the lowest bid, the LOI was terminated in 2020 during Muhyiddin’s administration and the contract went to Spanco instead.

It was reported that the Naza-Berjaya consortium bid was RM700 million lower than Spanco’s offer.

The matter then led Berjaya’s founder Vincent Tan to take the Finance Ministry and Spanco to court last year. The revelation prompted groups such as PKR’s Mahasiswa Keadilan Malaysia to lodge reports and call for an investigation against Muhyiddin.

MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki on Feb 20 said the agency recorded the statement of a former finance minister as part of its investigation into the case.

Without naming the minister, he said they served from 2020 to 2021, in an apparent reference to Zafrul.

Ringgit performance

Separately, Zafrul said the ringgit’s performance will have different impacts on the investment sector.

He said investors who are set to build factories would require between 18 and 24 months to complete them and, as the ringgit is weaker, the cost would be lower for them as their business is based on the US dollar.

“Currency in investment is not as sensitive as the currency when it comes to capital flows. In fact, when we talked to investors, currency is, if not discussed at all,” he added.

He also believed the current administration is well-equipped with the right people and experts on currency matters.

When asked if he has any advice for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim who is also the current finance minister, Zafrul said it is inappropriate to give the advice through media conferences.

“We have a cabinet meeting, so that is the (right) platform. Talking to the media to advise the prime minister is not the right platform,” he said.

Last Tuesday, the ringgit hit its lowest since the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis - around RM4.8 to a US dollar.

Anwar previously said the government is not ignoring or taking the decline of the ringgit lightly and is making efforts to address the issue.

He urged all quarters not to turn the weakening ringgit into a “political punching bag”.

He also said other Asian currencies such as the Japanese yen and Chinese renminbi were also sliding.

Bank Negara Malaysia governor Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour has said the ringgit is undervalued and “ought to be traded higher”.

The poor ringgit performance has led opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin to suggest that Anwar sack the finance minister during the current Dewan Rakyat session.

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