THE decision to appoint Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) the country’s sole 5G network provider was made by Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz and former communications and multimedia minister Saifuddin Abdullah without the knowledge of other officers, Zahidi Zainul Abidin said. 

The Communications and Multimedia Deputy Minister said even their deputy ministers at the time were not informed. 

“But I was told that there were discussions with Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chairman Dr Fadhlullah Suhaimi Abdul Malek as the 5G spectrum is given out by MCMC,” he said at a press conference in Parliament today.

“As such, I was unaware of the minister-to-minister discussion last week when I spoke in Parliament. I had no information as Fadhlullah did not come to Parliament. 

“When I asked the officers, they said they did not know why there is a monopoly, or why Ericsson was given the contract, making my answer incomplete,” said Zahidi.

He said that the government should be more transparent as the project costs RM20 billion and is a monopoly.

“The public needs to know mitigation plans, risk management and what happens to the project if Ericsson becomes bankrupt.

“We cannot be secretive about this project as I also need to be responsible to Parliament and the opposition,” he added.

Zahidi said the project costs RM20 billion, although Deputy Finance Minister Yamani Hafez Musa earlier today told Parliament that the project cost has been raised to RM12.5 billion from RM11 billion.

Zahidi said the public also had the right to know as he had received complaints from companies that wanted to tender for the project but found the process opaque.

“They complained that there was fraud in the tender. I don’t know what why the minister was so secretive. Maybe, it’s because Saifuddin used to be from PKR and I’m from Umno,” said Zahidi.

“I think even Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is in the dark over the 5G project as Minister Annuar Musa had to ask about this project recently in order to brief the prime minister. 

Zahidi had told Parliament last week that the 5G spectrum was given to DNB despite protests from his ministry. 

Following his revelations, Tengku Zafrul responded in a statement to say that both ministries had worked closely on the project.

Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin also defended the awarding of the 5G spectrum to DNB, arguing that the 4G roll-out by telecommunication companies had been inadequate.

DNB at an event today said only two telcos – Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM), on behalf of Unifi Mobile, and YTL Communications Sdn Bhd, on behalf of Yes – have signed on while it is still persuading the remaining companies. – December 15, 2021.