PUTRAJAYA must disclose its agreements with pharmaceutical companies to secure the vaccine for Covid-19 as it involved a huge amount of money, said former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“It must be done openly, that is what we (Pakatan Harapan) are trying to do. You cannot have this non-disclosure agreement (NDA) because we need to know especially when it involved big money,” he said in Shah Alam today.

The government had allocated RM2.05 billion for the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines, which will cover nearly 83% of the population or 26.5 million Malaysians.

Putrajaya had secured a deal with Pfizer to purchase 12.8 million doses of its Covid-19 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. It also signed an agreement with AstraZeneca for the procurement of 6.4 million doses of its vaccine.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said last week he was ready to brief Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the acquisition of the Covid-19 vaccine, including the cost in detail.

He, however, said PAC members must be willing to keep the terms classified, as the Malaysian government had signed a NDA with the companies involved. – December 31, 2020.