THE Penang government will make the contracts it awards via open tenders accessible to the public, said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today.

He said the state would talk to contractors that won government contracts since 2008 to waive the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) clause in their contracts, and expressed confidence that they would agree.

“After all, if they had won the contracts via open tender, they should have no problem with full disclosure of their contracts,” he told reporters at the state assembly building earlier this evening. 

To ensure transparency, Penang enforced the Freedom of Information Enactment on January 1, 2015. 

The state government was recently accused of doing away with open tenders after it leased a piece of land on Lebuhraya Peel to Island Hospital for its RM2 billion expansion project.

Lim said 99% of government contracts, including those from the various state agencies, were awarded via open tender.

Lim also said all future state government contracts would have a full disclosure agreement (FDA) clause instead of the NDA clause.

“The NDA clause is in the contract template from the finance ministry. We have been following that template. We did not realise the clause was there.

“We will replace that with the FDA clause. If the company does not want it, then don’t do business in Penang.” 

However, there would be exemption for economic game-changers, such as big companies on the level of Ikea, Alibaba, and Island Hospital, Lim said. 

Such companies, he had said last week, would be engaged in direct negotiations as they brought huge investments that could change and stimulate the industry and economy.

He also said such companies should not find transparent practices to be a problem

“For Island Hospital, I think they will be open to disclosing the contract terms after the licence and other approvals have been secured.” – May 23, 2017.