The vast majority of bumiputra contractors who were awarded government's projects are not 'connected' to Umno, the Parliament was told today.

Works Minister S Samy Vellu revealed that over 90 percent of the bumiputra contractors who have registered with his ministry have no political links with Umno.

He said this in response to DAP member of parliament from Kota Melaka Kerk Kim Hock's criticism that the government is not transparent and open when awarding public projects to contractors, favouring the 'Umnoputra' rather than the bumiputra who are more in need of the government's affirmative actions.

"We do not award someone projects simply because they have some connections with political leaders," said Samy Vellu.

He stated that the main factors for the government to choose contractors for a particular project are essentially their competency and experience, and not their ties to the ruling party.

"We picked them (the contractors) because they are competent and experienced. It has nothing to do with their political background or which party they support," the minister said.

Opposition supporters

He added that of the contractors who have been awarded government's projects, nearly half are supporters of opposition parties.

"More than 50 percent of the total number of contractors to whom we have given projects are supportive of opposition parties such as DAP and PAS. But we tell ourselves never mind, they (opposition supporters) too, are human beings. If they are capable of doing work, we'll give them work.

"By the same token, if Umno people prove their capabilities of doing work, we will not shun from awarding them the projects they deserve," he said.

Samy Vellu added his ministry is monitoring all state governments to ensure a fair distribution of projects and opportunities among contractors.

"We would not want the same people to get government projects every time because there is a regulation stating that each contractor should not be handling more than two projects at any one time," he said.

Losing confidence

Samy Vellu also denied that the privatisation of the 11,290 km of federal roads maintenance works recently was reflective of the government's losing confidence in his ministry to administer the roads.

He explained that the objective of the privatisation is to cut cost and increase the efficiency of maintenance works. "If we were to do these maintenance works by ourselves, we would have to employ at least another 1,000 staff. So, in order to save money, we decided to privatise them," he said.

The minister told the House the three companies awarded contracts to maintain federal roads were Belati Wangsa (M) Sdn Bhd under Syarikat Johawaki Sdn Bhd, Roadcare (M) Sdn Bhd under HCM Engineering and Selia Senggara (M) Sdn Bhd under Syarikat Bumihiway Sdn Bhd.

Slight commotion

Earlier, Kerk's use of the word "Umnoputra" sparked off a slight commotion for about five minutes in Parliament when both backbenchers from Sri Gading and Shah Alam, Mohamad Haji Aziz and Mohd Zin Mohamed, stood up and lambasted Kerk for "manipulating racial issues".

Kerk, backed by opposition MPs, insisted that it was necessary to distinguish between the "privileged Umnoputra" and the "ordinary bumiputra". Order returned after deputy speaker Lim Si Cheng intervened to stop the squabble