Education Ministry embarks internal probe over S’wak solar scandal — Maszlee

PUTRAJAYA: The Ministry of Education has begun its internal investigation since last week to identify the individuals behind the awarding of contract in the supply of solar and diesel energy to 369 schools in Sarawak, said its Minister Dr Maszlee Malik.

“I have instructed officers to investigate and give a full briefing on the problems that arose from the awarding of contract, which may have caused a serious non-compliance issue with the procurement procedures,” he told a press conference here yesterday.

An online news portal had previously reported on the possibility of misappropriation in the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project, in which the contract award was said to have been done under the direct order of the then country’s top leader without open tender.

The report mentioned that the leader had also allegedly instructed the ministry in January last year to appoint a car rental company in Bintulu to execute the project.

Maszlee said although several officials from the ministry attempted to rectify the situation after realising of the non-compliance issue in the project, the advice was ignored by the relevant parties.

Elaborating, Maszlee said there were 369 schools in Sarawak which did not have fixed electricity supply and only relying on diesel to generate electricity.

On January 1, 2017, Jepak Holding Sdn Bhd was given the contract to supply electricity to the 369 schools until Dec 31, 2019 with “a value of over RM1 billion” including the Goods and Services Tax (GST), he said.

According to Maszlee, the percentage of completion of the project was much lower than the target of 51 per cent as of May 15 due to the delay of contractor in initiating the works.

“In short, this project raised the question of why such a huge procurement was not done in an open tender process and how did Jepak get the monopoly without going through the proper process,” he said.

Maszlee also said he welcomed the probe by the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission (MACC) and had instructed the ministry’s officials to cooperate with the MACC to bring those guilty to justice.