[UPDATED] ‘MACC must probe why Perikatan govt nixed Berjaya-Naza deal’

KUALA LUMPUR – Graft busters must investigate the revelation by Berjaya Group founder Tan Sri Vincent Tan that he has sued the Malaysian government for terminating its letter of intent (LOI) for a vehicle fleet concession and giving it to another company, a DAP lawmaker said.

Taiping MP Wong Kah Woh said Tan’s allegations against the government under Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at the time were very serious and showed “non-compliance in the tender process”.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission needs to carry out an investigation into this matter immediately, to probe into why the LOI was cancelled, Wong, who is also former Public Accounts Committee chairman, said in a statement.

He was responding to Tan’s revelation yesterday that he had sued the government over the termination of the LOI that was offered to the Berjaya Group and the Naza Group which formed a consortium for a multi-million ringgit vehicle fleet concession.

The LOI that was offered under the then-Pakatan Harapan  federal government was cancelled in 2020 after Perikatan Nasional (PN) took over Putrajaya.

The PN government then awarded the contract to Spanco Sdn Bhd and paid it RM700 million more than the Berjaya-Naza contract, according to Tan yesterday.

Tan is also suing Spanco.

Wong also said the MACC should check what the decision of the tender committee had been at the time the LOI was cancelled, as well as the justification for why Spanco was paid RM700 million more.

Yesterday, Tan said that the Berjaya-Naza consortium had been picked by the government to manage the fleet concession through a LOI issued in 2018 by the Finance Ministry to replace Spanco, which had held the concession since 1994, according to a report by the New Straits Times.

The concession to manage the fleet of government vehicles was for 15 years and involved around 12,500 vehicles.

Tan said the suit has been filed against the Finance Ministry and that the public “will hear more for this down the road” as the case goes to trial.

“We won the contract as the lowest bidder and got the LOI. But then the government changed and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin became the prime minister. Three months after that, we got a notice that our LOI has been terminated,” Tan was quoted as saying by the NST.

“(The government) terminated our LOI and gave the tender to Spanco Sdn Bhd. Our tender was RM700 million cheaper than Spanco.” – The Vibes, July 18, 2023