Sunday, October 30, 2011

NG YEN YEN – YOU ARE SO WRONG IN MOST ASPECTS OF DECISION MAKING

Didn’t I tell you that Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Ng Yen Yen has all the justification and reason for the excessive spending and other financial woes of her ministry, as published in the Auditor General‘s report revealed recently? She claimed that by going for the Direct Negotiation, the ministry had saved millions of ringgit, and this is quite the contrary to the AG’s report.

All along, it was argued that Direct Negotiation for the award of tenders has been the subject of abuse; hence the government preferred the Open Tender where it was normal that the lowest bidder usually wins the tender. If the Open Tender system is the preferred policy for tender bidding by the ministries/departments, then who is Yen Yen to set her own rule and to ignore a government ruling? You see, if a minister herself cannot even abide by its own government ruling, how then would you expect others in the ministry to abide by such a ruling?

Yen Yen is reported to have said that she has had the approval of the Finance Ministry to proceed with the Direct Negotiation, which I am not easily convinced. Having known the workings of the Finance Ministry, it is not as easy as one thinks, to convince the ministry to renege on a policy or ruling that the ministry itself has formulated. The effect of this is that if a particular ministry is allowed to breach or is allowed the option to elect a policy, then other ministries can also do the same. If this be the case, then the Finance Ministry might as well not have such a policy, or any other policies. Let it be a ‘free for all’ or ‘do as you wish’ policy.

In any tender exercise, cost, performance, experience and ability of the bidder are some of the most important criteria in deciding the winning bidder. It is argued that a winning bidder can best be determined only through the Open Tender system. Of course the Open Tender system too can have its flaws when the Tender Board Members are themselves a dishonest and corrupt lot.

In the case of Direct Negotiation, it can just be decided by a stroke of a pen where awarding the tender sometimes does not even require the bidder to meet all the criteria required of a bidder. This is where tenders can easily be awarded to friends, family members and cronies as is usually the case. Costs will be decided between the approving authority and the bidder and this is where inflating the costs takes place i.e. the costlier, the better. We have seen far too many of such cases and it is still happening today. It is for this reason that I cannot agree to the argument put forth by Yen Yen when she says that the Direct Negotiation system is costs saving for her ministry, unless she can prove otherwise.

I can only say this to Yen Yen that the Finance Ministry when formulating and deciding upon a policy must have gone through a series of discussion and meetings, and once a policy has been decided, the policy cannot be wrong. Exception to a policy being formulated and decided upon, I think is not normal.

I also believe the AG cannot be wrong in its findings because of the serious repercussion it will bear upon the AG, if the findings are incorrect; worse still if it is false. Auditing a ministry/department is not something as easy as ABC. It requires meticulous work and the auditors are people of the highest integrity. And I know for one that the AG Tan Sri Ambrin Buang has all the traits of a man that possess the highest integrity, hard working, professional and most of all, he is thoroughly an honest person.

Now, based on the above reasoning and argument, I think Yen Yen is wrong in every aspect of her decision making and argument, and it is because of this that her ministry is now being placed under public scrutiny. And can someone tell me, how was Tourism Ministry able to save RM28 million via the Direct Negotiation as she had claimed? If what she claim is true, Yen Yen ought to be awarded the Pingat Selamatkan Wang Negara (PSWN),created solely for her.


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

6 comments:

Justin Choo said...

Dato,
If I am not mistaken, one of the first things she did as Tourist Minister was to go for "promotion holidays" in NZ with her husband.

I wonder how successful that promotion trip was. And the cost to the taxpayers?

bruno said...

Dato,everyone knows that NYY's family benefitted from these direct tenders.This lady is as greedy as her other corrupted minister collegues.This lady will be just chairwarming her ministerial position till the next GE.If she stands,definitely will lose her deposit.

If PR wins the next federal government,NYY and family will be joining other Umnoputras and family,boarding the midnight flight to Zimbabwe.If she dared stayed back,most probably she will be send to do hard labour in one of the coal mines in Russia.

9w2msg said...

Still remember her ministry spend a few million just to open some FB accounts...

Frankie said...

Datuk,

I'm not convinced that the tender system is also conducted fairly. There have been incidences whereby the projects were given to the highest tenderer (aka crony companies) using the lame excuses that the other tenderers at lower tender prices did not comply with specifications.

What we are facing in this country is a corrupt regime whose aim is to bleed the country coffers dry at all costs. In order for this corrupt regime to achieve its objectives, the regime has to hold on to power at all costs. Giving RM1.4bn in bonuses and pensions to the civil servants (or BN vote bank) is chicken feed compared to what the regime stands to pocket many times more of this amount into their own pockets.

The only way where we can have a fair system is to kick out the present corrupt government and implement an open and transparent tendering system. With the corrupt regime out of office, I'm sure all the project costs will be reduced by at least 50% because there will no longer be any kickbacks or commissions included in the tendered prices.

As for the likes of Ng Yen Yen, she is just basically following what the rest of her cabinet colleagues are doing. She is just merely jumping on the same corrupt bandwagon or gravy train. When in a corrupt government, just do what the other corrupters do.

komando said...

More interesting Stories:

The Malaysian Defense ministry nominated the Malaysian company DRB-Hicom Defence Technologies (Deftech) a prime contractor to locally produce and supply 257 armored personnel carriers based on the Turkish 8x8 Pars wheeled armored vehicle. The Pars, developed and produced by the Turkish company FNSS is based on a design made by the U.S. company GPV. The value of the Malaysian 'letter of intent' is worth over worth about US$2.5 billion. Deliveries will span over seven years. The prototype APC is expected to be delivered for testing to the Malaysian Army by 2011. Deftech is to build 12 variants from the base vehicle, including personnel carrier, anti-tank weapon carrier, command and control and anti-aircraft weapon vehicles.

The APC version will be equipped with a two-man manned turret to be developed and produced by the South African company Denel. Sapura Thales Electronics (STE) will be the electronics system integrator.

The cost of the new vehicle seems excessively high - about $9.8 million per unit. Malaysian defense officials explained that these figures represent the total life cycle cost of the program, including which usually includes design, development, logistical support and sustainment as well as non-recurring engineering costs and investments associated with the set-up of local production facilities in Malaysia to develop its armored vehicle manufacturing. Yet, even when considering a 250% mark-up to cover such the price tag on the new Malaysian vehicle seem odd.

komando said...

If only our leaders have a thing called "CONSCIENCE"

"THIS COUNTRY WOULD NOT BE LIKE WHAT IT IS TODAY!"

HALF WILL DO!