The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) sure has a lot on their plate right now. After putting out a notice announcing their search for businessman Low Taek Jho (aka Jho Low) and SRC International director, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, they’re now looking into the Tourism Ministry!
The anti-graft agency is reportedly looking into a RM99 million promotion contract between the ministry’s promotional agency Tourism Malaysia and a local company.
According to The Star, earlier this month, Former Tourism Malaysia chairman Wee Choo Keong called on authorities to investigate this million-ringgit deal, as he claimed it was made under suspicious circumstances.
Source: The Star
According to Wee, the local company involved in the deal was only formed on 6th November 2017, and acted as a middleman for Tourism Malaysia and a Chinese company, Tencent Holdings. He questioned why Tourism Malaysia did not go directly to Tencent instead, considering the local company had only been open for less than a year.
In a blog post, Wee deemed the contract a “Speedy Gonzales deal” and provided a timeline of events detailing the entire agreement. Here’s a brief summary of it;
4th April 2018
- Former Minister of Tourism and Culture, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and chairman of Tourism Malaysia Datuk Siew Ka Wei launched the project at Istana Hotel.
- A letter of intent proposing digital marketing for 2 years costing RM99.693 million was approved and signed by the Director-General of Tourism Malaysia and was accepted by the local company on the same day.
- That afternoon, after a meeting, the Tourism Ministry’s Procurement Board A had also approved the “Proposal Papers for Internet advertising in China using Tencent Platform for 2018 – 2020 with the total cost of RM99,693.000.00 for two years.”
- Later that day, an agreement was drawn up and signed by Tourism Malaysia’s Director-General and a representative from the local company.
- Wee commented on this agreement in his post, saying, “It is extremely unusual for the government agencies to consider any proposal from any company, let alone sign an agreement, if the company was not registered with MOF.”
6th April 2018
- Wee claims the Ministry of Finance had only issued a “Sijil Akaun Pendaftaran Syarikat” to the local company on this day, two days after the agreement was signed.
- This was also on the same day former Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak announced the dissolution of parliament, effective on 7th April.
10th April 2018
- Tourism Malaysia (TM) issued a letter of appointment to the local company, which was signed by TM’s Director-General and accepted on the same day.
Source: Wee Choo Keong
25th April 2018
- The local company sent a “certificate of work completion” to TM.
27th April 2018
- TM issued the “certificate of work completion” and was signed by the Deputy Director-General, who also recommended that RM11,963,160 should be paid for “production script, scripting, shooting location identification channel booking and initial mobilization for the said production work.”
6th May 2018
- TM issued the RM11.96 million payment to the local company.
Wee explained,
“Reliable sources have confirmed that at that material time TM has no budget or ready fund to pay this RM11,693,000.00 at that time.”
“It was taken from the sum that was reserved for Visit Malaysia 2018 – 2020 Campaign. So, bungkuslah the Visit Malaysia Year for 2018 – 2020. No worries we have ‘Cuti-Cuti Malaysia‘.”
Read Wee’s full post on this matter here.
Source: The Star
In light of this information, the MACC has just paid a visit to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture to inquire about the “Speedy Gonzales deal” on 6th June, according to Free Malaysia Today. Tourism Malaysia director-general Mirza Mohammad Taiyab told the daily that MACC officers visited the ministry’s headquarters to conduct an inquiry, not a raid or probe.
Well, let’s see what other information will emerge from this!
Also read: Tourism Minister Says RM500 Mil Budget is Tight, Wants Extra RM300 Mil to Boost Industry
