IF your spouse wants to do business and you are a minister, what would you both do?

If your party has always preached the open tender system and transparency in government procurement to avoid the perception of corruption, nepotism, cronyism and favouritism, you want the public to distance your party from your particular political opponent who is so tainted with the past records.

Then the politicians under your party who have won power must have good practices and be different.

In an ideal world, your spouse would only focus on the private sector, no need to bid for government/public contracts, or perhaps more specifically, not in the states where your party has significant political influence.

Speaking of which, the case of Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh’s husband Ramachandran Muniandy is controversial because his company is one of the only two to be awarded the Selangor state government’s project funding (contract worth RM2.1 million) to operate the demand-responsive transit (DRT) service under the Selangor Mobility Programme.

Given that the current state government executive councillor handling the portfolio is Ng Sze Han, who is from DAP, and that Hannah Yeoh used to be an elected Subang Jaya state assemblyman for 10 years and was part of the Pakatan Rakyat ruling coalition, and is now holding a higher office at the federal level, public suspicion of a possible link between nepotism and favouritism or undue influence is not far-fetched, indeed should be expected.

Worse still, the news broke because a viral X post initiated by Aduan Rakyat on May 23 caught the attention of many people, and then the public only found out about this deal where the appointment letter was issued way back on September 20, 2023.

Only if the Selangor state government could foresee this and make a proactive and preemptive disclosure, which would make a big difference in gaining public trust compared to people finding out later and being defensive and reactive on the issue.

MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki’s quick dismissal of any possible connection to corruption or wrongdoing does nothing to allay public doubts.

Azam’s main defence in this case is that the awarding authority for the project is not Hannah Yeoh’s ministry, so there is no conflict of interest in the state government’s decision.

But to many eyes, this does not mean that Hannah or her party have no particular influence over the appointment decision.

Nor do I buy the argument that there should not be an open tender process in this case, even if there are a very limited number of qualified bidders.

A similar practice has often been adopted by the Health Ministry in the procurement of medical products, where the patent holder usually has a market monopoly.

Open tender is about the government/purchaser setting the exact terms and specifications for the purchase, they can even allow more than one winner or split the deal, so it is not true that open tender would lead to monopoly.

Request for proposal would often lead to bidders setting the terms, including their own technological terms, and often inflating the budget, as in the case of the SRS consortium when they first bid for the Penang Transport Master Plan in 2015.

Request for proposal is often not a good substitute to open tender when the government knows what it wants to achieve.

Now, in the Selangor Mobility Programme, the Selangor state government has set the precedent of bypassing open tender and appointing only through bureaucratic channels, i.e. whether the vendor applying has the qualification and licence from other ministries. What if in the future, party cronies and families set up their companies and get qualified or relevant certificates, can they all get government contracts just because they are qualified and meet the set conditions and criteria?

Yes, spouses and family members of politicians sometimes have legitimate and relevant expertise to offer even to the public sector.

Since business would naturally make a profit, with public sector procurement from the federal government alone still accounting for some RM130 billion worth of contracts and projects (estimated for the year 2024), it is too tempting for any company to say that it does not want to be involved in public sector contracts just to avoid conflict of interest.

So, if conflict of interest and undue political influence are the public’s concern, then the procurement system and the tendering process must be improved to ensure transparency and public disclosure of the true merits and legitimate justifications for awarding public contracts to the spouse or family member in question.

Without such a mechanism, public procurement and contracts are more likely to be misused for nepotism and cronyism, which are elements of corruption.

It is high time that the Pakatan Harapan-led federal and state governments expedite the enactment of a Government Procurement Act in line with international standards.

Transparency would be the most effective remedy against cronyism and nepotism, and those legitimate and competent business spouses and family members can also clear their names. – June 3, 2024.

* Lim Chee Han is a founding member of Agora Society and a policy researcher. He holds a PhD in infection biology from Hannover Medical School, Germany, and an MSc in immunology and BSc in biotechnology from Imperial College London. Health and socioeconomic policies are his concerns. He believes a nation can advance significantly if policymaking and research are taken seriously.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.