THE Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) wants the anti-graft body to continue investigating the vehicle-entry permit (VEP) contract given to a Barisan Nasional crony company.

A recent Public Accounts Committee (PAC) finding on the contract confirmed its fears that there had been dirty deals and unwelcome influence by politics and power in the project, it said.

“The investigation by the PAC into the VEP contract award saw the conclusion that there was indeed political influence in the awarding of the RM145 million contract to TCSens Sdn Bhd, in which Tanjung Piai MP Wee Jeck Seng is a 25% shareholder.

“Notable as well is that Wee was an elected central committee member in MCA, while then transport minister Liow Tiong Lai was the MCA president.

“And it becomes laughable that denials and feigned ignorance quickly followed suit,” C4 said in a statement today.

C4 said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) must investigate the matter of the VEP contract award, along with any other potentially involved person.

It also wants for an immediate overhaul of the procurement process, with transparency being the aim to deter instances of self-gratification, bribes and potential corruption.

Loopholes in the regulations for public procurement, such as Treasury circular VK713, as mentioned by Liow in his testimony to PAC, should also be fixed.

Liow testified to the PAC that the ministry decided to use the circular, on the basis that the timeline given to implement the project was short.

“Not only is a short timeline not an excuse to cut corners on proper due diligence, the error is further exacerbated in that the contract award was further approved by the Ministry of Finance, which was headed by former prime minister Najib Razak at the time, leaving gaping holes as to whether any due diligence was done at all, given the haemorrhaging of public funds under his care.”

C4 said all these could have been avoided with an open-tender system, which would have made it easier for the government to be impartial in its due diligence and in awarding contracts based on ability.

On Tuesday, the PAC said it has found that there was no solid justification for TC Sens to be awarded the road-charges (RC) system and VEP project totalling RM149.45 million through direct negotiations between 2016 and 2018.

The project involved two contracts worth RM45.15 million inked on September 14, 2016 and the another worth RM104.30 million inked on May 7, 2018.

PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh said the awarding of the project through direct negotiation under the Transport Ministry failed to achieve the original objective, which was to expedite implementation of projects. – November 13, 2020.