Syed Saddiq wants PAC to oversee 5G rollout plan

AN MP has called for Parliament’s bipartisan Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to scrutinise the country’s 5G rollout plan.

Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (Independent-muar) made the proposal, saying that it needed to be done as a huge sum of money would have to be spent to develop the network infrastructure.

“I suggest that the PAC look into this,” he said.

Syed Saddiq questioned why the project was given to a single body, Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB), to handle.

He noted that previously, the development of the 4G broadband was given via open tender to several companies.

This has raised Rm4bil to Rm11bil in revenue to the government, which was later used to develop the rural Internet infrastructure.

“Now, the government will have to spend between Rm11bil and Rm15bil for the country’s 5G network,” Syed Saddiq said when he interjected Fahmi Fadzil (Phlembah Pantai) during the debate on the motion of thanks on the Royal Address.

Fahmi, who was speaking on 5G, agreed with Syed Saddiq’s proposal that the 5G rollout plan needed to be scrutinised by the PAC.

“The issue on DNB and the 5G rollout should be brought to the committee as it involves a huge amount of expenditure and this is an infrastructure project for the nation’s future.

“We cannot see this fail,” Fahmi said.

He also suggested that two consortiums, instead of one, be set up to oversee the 5G rollout such as what was being done in Singapore.

DNB is the government-owned Special Purpose Vehicle set up to build, own and operate Malaysia’s 5G infrastructure.