Malaysians applaud The water, Land and Natural Resources Minister, Dr A Xavier Jayakumar for cancelling several projects awarded without open tenders by BN government, HERE.
It is an opened secret that there were many projects or contracts being awarded by way of direct negotiation a few months before May 9th, the 14th GE.
THE ‘SPEEDY GONZALES’ RM99.6 MILLION GEEKO CONTRACT
One glaring example of this category of project was the ‘Speedy Gonzales’ RM99.693 million direct negotiation contract between Tourism Malaysia (TM) and Geeko Tech Sdn Bhd (Geeko), HERE.
To digress a little, out of the 45 charges faced by YB Dato ‘ Seri Zahid Hamid, three of which were associated with Profound Radiance Sdn Bhd, which is one of the visa processing companies, HERE.
Sometime in May 2018 this scandalous ‘Speedy Gonzales’ contract was exposed. On 1-6-2018 Dato Dr Siew Ka Wei (Siew), the then Chairman of TM had said amongst other things in a press statement that:
“Geeko Tech was the local partner chosen by Tencent to implement the project here. The principal officers are known to Tencent Group. The choice of Geeko as a Special Purpose Vehicle for the project was made by Tencent.”
Please read HERE.
Tencent Group referred to by Siew is Tencent Holdings Ltd. It is a multinational conglomerate founded in 1998. It is one of the world largest technology companies, HERE.
Eight days later, on 8-6-2018 Siew issued another press statement to change his position from “The choice of Geeko as Special Purpose Vehicle for the project was made by Tencent” to “Geeko is not the special purpose vehicle chosen by Tencent…” .
Why was there a need for the two conflicting statements from Siew on the “Special Purpose Vehicle”?
It was very strange that TM chose not to enter into a contract directly with Tencent Holdings. It was equally strange that Tencent Holdings would prefer to enter into a contract with a ‘Special Purpose vehicle’, which is a 5 month old company!
BACKGROUND OF GEEKO
Geeko was incorporated in November 2017. Its CEO is none other than Ms Elizabeth Ken, who was by chance the media specialist of Redberry Media Group (Redberry). Redberry is an outfit of Dato’ Dr Siew Ka Wei. The Malay Mail is part of Redberry. Of course, these glaring facts were by coincidence!
SPEEDY GONZALES DIRECT NEGOTIATION CONTRACT WAS PREPARED AND INKED IN ONE DAY
Just for the record Geeko was incorporated in November 2017. The said scandalous direct negotiation contract was evaluated, negotiated and prepared and signed within one day on 4-4-2018, which was about one month before 14thGE. On 4-4-2018. Geeko was not registered with Ministry of Finance (MOF). It is against the MOF Procurement Rules for any government departments or agencies to deal with a company that was not registered with MOF. The little napoleons in TM were the law to themselves and fear nobody including the Minister of Tourism & Cultures (MOTAC) and/or MACC.
MANY DIRECT NEGOTIATION CONTRACTS IN TM
In August 2018 Datuk Seri Mirza, the outgoing DG, who had signed the speedy Gonzales contract was called up by Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) and was told to terminate it. Today it would appear that the little napoleons in TM is in no mood to terminate it.
There were many ongoing direct negotiation contracts between TM and Global Renown Ltd, which is an outfit of the famous Datuk Tam Yun Tong, who is the MCA overseas representative in Japan.
Out of the total advertising expenditures for 2017/2018 of RM160,702,958.58, only RM10, 515, 648.76 was spent on the existing contracts that was budgeted for, the remaining RM150,187,309.00 was for the un-budgeted direct-nego contracts. Out of the said RM150,187,309.00, RM91,693.282.90 worth of contracts were awarded to Global Reknown Ltd, HERE.
REPORT LODGED WITH MACC
In June 2018 a report had been lodged on the said ‘Speedy Gonzales’ Geeko contract with MACC. MACC had raided the headquarters of TM and seized documents. Five months have elapsed this glaring contract, which was negotiated and signed within one day, is still awaiting for actions by MACC.
MINISTER OF MOTAC
As of now, it is business as usual in MOTAC and TM. It seems that all the direct negotiation contracts have not been terminated. Up to this date, there was no announcement made on the status of these contracts. The Minister of MOTAC should follow the footsteps of Minister YB Dr A Xavier Jayakumar by terminating these direct negotiation contracts.
