Startling revelation brought to light by Sarawak Bumiputera Hawkers and Traders Association in a press statement

KUCHING: A businessman here would have been thrilled to be awarded a government contract worth more than RM1 million recently, except that he did not participate in the tender exercise at all!

This startling revelation was brought to light by the Sarawak Bumiputera Hawkers and Traders Association in a press statement yesterday.

The businessman is one of the association’s members.

The association said they were concerned about the exact procedures and manner in which school tenders had been conducted by the State Education Department and the Federal Financial Office (FFO).

The association said the normal procedure in the tender process was that the department would process and recommend the contractor company based on merits to FFO for a tender board meeting to decide on the successful tender.

“However, of late the practice is that the decision for awarding the contract was all made in Kuala Lumpur which is against the norm … creating an anomaly in the process,” said the statement, which was signed by the association’s president Nawawi Ibrahim and secretary-general Kani-Isa Marican Ismail.

The two officials claimed that in the past, there were non-performing companies that were awarded contracts although they did not fulfil the tender’s requisites and when the matter was brought up to the attention of FFO, they were told that the company did not participate directly in the tender board meeting.

“What is more mind boggling and puzzling to our members is the case of a recently concluded tender exercise where one of our members who claimed that his company did not participate in the tender exercise under the heading ‘Tender Perkhidmatan Pembersihan Kawasan dan Mencuci Bangunan’ but was informed that his company had been successfully selected to be awarded the contract for certain schools in Sarawak.

“The information was made known to him through various phone calls from a person seeking to subcontract the works from his company, (and) he has lodged a police report (accordingly) as the alleged participation, if at all, was without his knowledge, consent and approval,” they said.

In this respect, the association was seeking explanation and clarifications from the Education Department and FFO and all relevant authorities involved in the tender process for the betterment and fairness of their members and other contractors in the future.

They wanted a clear guideline for all participating contractors so that the above scenario would not recur in the future.

They also hoped that an investigation would be carried out on the recent incident.

“We are prepared to cooperate with, and provide, the relevant authority with the relevant information on the matter. It is the members’ common understanding that should the matter remain unresolved they may have to seek interference from a higher authority,” they said.