Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali has refuted his predecessor’s accusations that the state has done away with open tenders as “baseless” as the practice is still in place.

 

Former MB Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and Pelabuhan Klang assemblyperson yesterday claimed that the alleged abolition of open tenders made in last November was a “ recipe for disaster ”.

 

“I think the Pelabuhan Klang assemblyperson can make all the accusations he wants to convince Umno and BN.

 

“I trust my reply is crystal clear. The allegation is completely baseless,” said Azmin today at the state assembly.

 

He said the open tender system was still being practiced but what has been introduced is the method of evaluation of the “cut off”, instead of the present system based purely on lowest cost.

 

“I stress, the policy now is still open tender. What is different (with the previous system) is only the system of calculating the cut off,” said Azmin.

 

“The element of ‘value for money’ is still being used nonetheless,” he added.

Under the cut-off system he said, the 10 lowest tenders within a 20 percent margin will be the ones to be considered.

Khalid yesterday took aim at Azmin’s statement last November that Selangor had changed its open tender approach, which used to award contracts to the lowest bidder.

“This doesn’t make any sense, as the open tender system in an era of transparent and responsible administration, we proved that we could save up to RM100 million each year,” Khalid has said.

'Ill' projects needing to be fixed

Azmin today also dismissed that such savings could be made, as there were many “ill” projects that needed to be fixed.

“The state has 18 ‘ill’ projects, valued at more than RM100 million. Where is the RM100 million savings when the (‘ill’) projects have been re-evaluated at more than RM100 million?” he said.

Meanwhile, on a question by Abdul Rani Othman (PAS-Meru) regarding the Kinrara-Damansara (Kidex) highway, Azmin sarcastically said he had cancelled the project as a leader can’t always tread the safest path.

“We have made the decision to cancel development of Kidex The credibility and integrity of a leader is measured by his ability and bravery to make decisions... not by being afraid to make decisions and always treading the safe path,” he said.