This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 29, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The finance ministry (MoF) under the previous administration had abused the procurement policy and system that led to the failure of enforcement by government agencies and a lack of disciplinary action against non-compliance, said the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4).

“As a result, the culture of corruption, cronyism and nepotism grew with impunity in the public procurement sector, which in turn contributed to massive siphoning of public funds, wastage and leakages,” C4 executive director Cynthia Gabriel told reporters at the launch of the organisation’s report titled “Procurement as part of good governance in new Malaysia: Challenges and Recommendations” yesterday.

Although the procurement system has improved with the opening up of data and making processes transparent with the e-procurement system, that is not enough, she said. “The largest problem is not the design of the system, but the implementation of policies by public officials themselves.

“The non-compliance of stipulated requirements such as proper planning of annual procurement and drafting of specifications, using open tender for procurements above RM500,000 and monitoring the quality of production or construction processes, are glaring and rampant in Malaysia,” she said.

Gabriel said the onus is on the current MoF under the Pakatan Harapan government to revamp the entire procurement policy to avoid problems which include the recurrence of the abuse of the system. “There were companies that had manipulated the system and the [previous] government had closed an eye, pretending all was well when it wasn’t. We understand that the change will take time, but the government has to make things public and transparent on what needs to be changed first. We don’t want tender board meetings to be rubber stamps only,” she added.

C4 outlines a series of weaknesses in the procurement regime in the report, while highlighting 17 recommendations for internal control mechanisms and external oversight systems. The recommendations include making MyProcurement website the one-stop portal for all public procurements.