What did you do after discovering DNB 'horrors', Ong asks Fahmi

Former Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming wants to know what remedial action was taken by the current administration after discovering irregularities with Digital Nasional Berhad's (DNB) dealings when it first came to power.

This is after Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said what he found when he first became a minister was "horrifying and alarming".

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Fahmi said when he joined the cabinet - as then communications and digital minister - it appeared that no one knew what was going on in DNB.

"There were several things when I took over the portfolio that were horrifying and alarming, where we found that it appeared no one in the ministry or the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) knew what was going on in DNB when I took over

"(Whether it’s about) contracts, or the amounts cited," he said.

He said even the then-treasury deputy secretary-general Mahmood Merican did not have "any visibility" despite DNB being a Ministry of Finance Inc (MOF Inc) company.

Fahmi said this in response to a query from Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Karim regarding allegations that the Muhyiddin Yassin administration had allegedly allocated RM16.5 billion of public funds for the first 5G network rollout by DNB.

Fahmi said he could not elaborate as DNB was now under the purview of Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo, who will be addressing the Parliament today.

Remedial steps

Responding to Fahmi's remarks, Ong today questioned what steps the minister had taken after his shocking findings.

"What action steps did Fahmi take to clean up the 'horrifying and concerning' things that he found at DNB when he first became minister?

"In the interest of transparency, is he able to reveal what remedial steps were taken, so that this can be made into a case study on how to properly 'clean up' an MOF Inc entity?" Ong asked in a series of posts on X.

The DAP politician also asked whether Fahmi had followed up on his own demands for the 5G award to Ericsson by DNB to be probed upon becoming a minister and if yes, what the findings were.

Ong also raised further questions about how Fahmi had worked with DNB and Ericsson to achieve things such as 80 percent coverage before the deadline, and whether there had been any improprieties in DNB's expenditure.

"Fahmi's reply in parliament comes at a time when there is great scrutiny over the award of the second 5G network to U Mobile including questions over transparency and the terms of the award," he said.

"Raising more questions about DNB without providing substantive answers will only throw up more questions about the 5G ecosystem in Malaysia, including to investors.

"This is also unfair to some of his cabinet colleagues who may not be able to answer some of these questions publicly," Ong added.

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