Govt to relook projects

Works Ministry: Overpriced tenders will be a thing of the past

KUALA LUMPUR: Works Minister Baru Bian will be making sure that future government projects and procurements will be closely supervised to stop the past practice of overpriced tenders and contracts.

“I will advocate for open tenders extensively because they are competitive and very fair commercially,” he said.

Baru said for this to happen, his ministry would work closely with other ministries and agencies in ensuring that due process and pro cedures were carried out thoroughly.

Baru said there was some truth in public perception that previously, the ministry, despite having experts such as engineers and quantity surveyors, was not fully involved in the process of determining the price of mega projects, thus leading to inflated costs.

“There is truth in that. But the Works Ministry now wants to ensure that for infrastructure projects implemented using the con ventional method or development expenditure, we will be actively involved in providing our technical expertise throughout the assessment process to predetermine the value of the tender,” he told Bernama in an interview.

He said this in response to a question that previously such costing was decided mainly by the Finance Ministry or other agencies.

Baru also admitted that the ministry had very little input in the case of projects implemented under the publicprivate sector partnership mechanism but he would push for the open tenders as well.

The minister said exemption to the open system would be given to procurements involving national security and timesensitive projects.

“But the selection by tender is subject to Government policy.

“I think we can be confident that future contracts are not simply decided by ‘certain people’ but would be very open and competitive,” he said.