KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 9): The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) says the award of the communications and translation tender for next year’s Asia Pacific Economic Council (APEC) meeting was done in line with procedures and the law.

The ministry said it was carried out in accordance with the government’s financial procurement for open tenders and was in full compliance with current financial regulations.   

“Any suspicions of wrongdoings in any government financial procurement process should be immediately reported to the relevant authorities for immediate actions,” MITI added in a statement.

The statement comes in the wake of claims in the social media that a tender for the APEC 2020 summit had been awarded to a company controlled by former officers of a minister from the previous administration, alleging cronyism.

MITI said the National Secretariat for APEC 2020 — established by the ministry — is also subject to the Ministry of Finance (MoF)’s government financial procurement procedures.

It will be issuing several advertisements for the tenders and ensuing quotations for the supply of goods and services related to the organising of APEC 2020, throughout 2020.

MITI then proceeded to remind all tenderer’s to abide by the rules and regulations of the procurement issues to avoid integrity issues for themselves and the ministry.

In the same vein, MITI said all procurement processes are carried out as per the MoF’s financial procurement rules, in order to ensure contract awards are done in a transparent manner.

“MITI has full trust on Malaysia’s legal system and takes this matter seriously. Any report of suspected wrongdoings on both MITI officers, as well as the tenderers, will be turned over to the relevant authorities for their further actions,” MITI said.