‘No more selling of contracts, APs and licences’

PUTRAJAYA: The government will no longer sell contracts, approved permits (APs) and government licences to contractors, which was the practice in the past.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said these were sold to contractors in the name of creating economic opportunities.

However, the approach did not yield any results.

“We (the government) are focusing on achieving end results rather than creating opportunities.

“Many opportunities were created in the past, but they were wasted.

“For example, they sold contracts to those who were not qualified just because they wanted to create opportunities.”

Dr Mahathir said this after chairing a special cabinet committee meeting on the government’s Shared Prosperity Vision, here, yesterday.

Now, he said, the government did not allow any contracts or licences to be simply sold to anyone.

“But we want to make sure that those who will be awarded contracts or licences are qualified.

“And if they are not qualified, we will provide training to them until they are qualified.”

Dr Mahathir said awarding or giving contracts to those who were not qualified would not achieve the objective.

“Our objective is that we want to achieve our target in the end, not in the beginning because in the past, contracts were given to everyone and everywhere (without taking into account the end results).

“This time, no more selling of contracts.”