Monday, August 30, 2010

Award of Contracts to Umno-Owned Companies: Conflict of Interest?

Pakatan seeks probe on Umno-corporate nexus
By Boo Su-Lyn August 29, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders are demanding a probe into Umno-linked companies being awarded lucrative government contracts, but conceded to the complexities in such an exercise and the difficulty in proving that corruption was involved
The links between Umno and certain conglomerates were revealed further in a High Court hearing last week involving the past shareholders of Realmild Sdn Bhd, the shadowy company that took over media giant The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Bhd in 1993, and Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB).

“There has to be a comprehensive investigation because for the last 30 years, there has been such a far-ranging nexus of Umno companies and the role they play not only in corporate but also government-linked company (GLC) transactions,” DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang told The Malaysian Insider.

“There is no proper accountability in the whole process,” said Lim, adding that this was the reason why Malaysia’s integrity rating took a nosedive in the past three decades.

The Ipoh Timur MP pointed out that it was difficult to identify the boundaries involving the government, the political party, and the individual in companies owned by Barisan Nasional (BN) parties.

DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua said that there was a clear conflict of interest when the government awards contracts to Umno-linked companies.

“Whatever the government awards benefits companies [owned] by Umno and other ruling coalition parties,” said Pua.

Realmild, originally a RM2 company, was the majority shareholder of MRCB, which is now developing the KL Sentral commercial and transport hub in Brickfields.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP added that the probe should focus on identifying the stakes in the Umno-linked companies.

“The National Audit Department should run a check on all companies where Umno holds a stake, direct or indirect, and verify them against contracts awarded by the government,” he said, adding that this must apply to all ruling parties including PR if they should capture Putrajaya.

Pua, however, admitted that the probe would be a “complicated” exercise as he claimed Umno hides their holdings under various companies.

“Trying to unravel the entire network of Umno’s ownership in many companies would be a major exercise,” he said, pointing out that the complexity was shown by the court dispute where some shares that were meant to be proxy shares were retained as personal shares.

[...]

Pua said that laws should be put in place to ban or restrict political party involvement or ownership in business interests as mere guidelines were unlikely to prevent abuses.

“In a case where the government is awarding contracts to an Umno company, it becomes complicated. The minister may step away from (making) the decision, but civil servants are under pressure to award the contract as they are under the purview of the minister,” he said.

Pua also noted that although companies participating in government tenders could be forced to disclose political party ownership, most Umno-linked companies avoided such disclosures as their shares were usually held in proxy.

For the full article, click here.

10 comments:

TWC said...

Tony,

I would say this the act of jealousy. :p

najib manaukau said...

This is a tradition and also a corrupt habit passed on from shenanigan Mahathir's when he was the P.M. of Malaysia in order to gain the support just so his cronies will continue their support for the shenanigan Mahathir to stay on as President of Umno and consequently as P.M. of Malaysia.
It is for these reasons Malaysia is well known for their corruption and also for the way to bankruptcy soon.

AndrewI said...

"Pua said that laws should be put in place to ban or restrict political party involvement or ownership in business interests as mere guidelines were unlikely to prevent abuses."

I would say: go further. Political party should not own, invest &/or involved in any business or financial instruments. And neither are they allowed to own any properties, regardless if it's for HQ/office or for rental. Basically, anything that generates income/return should be banned for any political party.
This is to prevent any party holding office from amassing large amounts of money (through cronyism), and to prevent conflict of interest.
All money should come from sponsorships/donations.

When & if PR/DAP wins the next election, will PR have the courage to propose & push this new law into effect? I have a niggling feeling that it will be 有心而力不足 for Tony due to internal objection towards this law---I don't trust the greed of human, especially politician in power.

Anonymous said...

Tony,

On the subject conflict of interest, after the Ronnie Liu & Tee Boon Hock scandak, I find it hard for PR or DAP to walk the straight line as well. Greed and personal interests will take over.

Anonymous said...

Salam YB ,
Yang ini saya setuju...
Diminta YB dapat mendedahkan juga syarikat-syarikat yg berkaitan dengan MCA, MIC, Gerakan dan juga parti2 BN yg lain termasuk di Malaysia Timur.
Ikhlas

Lee Wee Tak said...

You can tell the way BN administration mingle up the state and party personnel, assets and machinery together.

BN politicians, seems to me, have difficulty in understanding the concept that public and party property are separate.

in Barry Wain's Malaysian Maverick, it is Mahathir who started the blurring of this border.

That is why, Utusan Malaysia, a national cum party newspaper..an anomaly unknown in mature & thriving democracies

Jerry Chin said...

Dear Pua Chu Kang,

Govt contracts ALWAYS go to UMNO linked companies, while, Pakatan Rakyat State contracts ALWAYS go to DAP linked companies.

How IRONIC, huh???

That TEE fella who got embroiled recently in the TEE-RONNIE-TENG saga MUST be cursing at your article, Tony.

A pot calling a kettle BLACK???

ihomerent said...

we support you tony ! dap rocks

Anonymous said...

If a UMNO nominee is the major stakeholder of GLC companies, it means that bumiputra equity share holdings is much higher because UMNO has so many members and thus each of them has a share in the equities BUT the grassroot level UMNO members cannot even sell and spend on themselves.

achong laptops under 200 said...

please save malaysia from BN