PETALING JAYA: MCA has slammed the government for allowing direct negotiations in the purchase of textbooks.

Its party president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong questioned the Finance Ministry’s decision to acquire the Dual Language Programme (DLP) textbooks through direct negotiations.

He said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah had announced in Parliament on Oct 30 last year that the government would only allow direct negotiations in certain situations.

These situations involve emergency needs, uniformity, supply and service, safety and strategy, as well as bumiputra contractors.

“I have said publicly that the only acceptable exception here is 'safety and strategy' as it involves national security and specific equipment needs.

“The other four are too general, which would ultimately be abused.

“And my worries are justified today. With the Finance Ministry allowing textbooks (to) be acquired through direct negotiations, it will eventually open the floodgates for hundreds of similar cases,” he said in a Facebook post on Monday (Jan 14).

He added that Pakatan Harapan had pledged in its manifesto that they would do away with the practice of direct negotiations but they seemed to have made another U-turn on the matter.

“Before GE14, Pakatan, especially DAP, criticised the practice of direct negotiation and promised voters that they would opt for open tender should they come into power.

“(However) Pakatan seems to have forgotten that it had promised in its election manifesto that open tender would be used ‘extensively and transparently’ but I assure you that the people are not so forgetful,” he said.

On Sunday (Jan 13), the Finance Ministry announced in a statement that it had given special approval for direct negotiations to take place for the acquisition of DLP textbooks.

It said the special approval was done out of concern that the delay would affect students sitting for major examinations.

-The Star-