More transparency, governance and integrity in Government contracting

Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) is growing increasingly alarmed by the apparent lack of transparency, governance and integrity in Government contracting. Despite promises of open (or restricted) tenders, there have been many awards without tender, open or otherwise. These include the sports betting licence, the Palace and ancillary works, and mega land development projects such as the MATRADE expo, Sungei Besi air base and Sungai Buloh hub. Cost overruns and defective performance persist with apparently no one, either the contractors or those awarding and monitoring the contracts being taken to task. Lack of transparency and governance allows corruption and waste of public funds.

TI-M lauds the Government's intention to implement TI's Integrity Pacts (IPs). IPs provide privately enforceable contractual sanctions such as termination of contract, forfeiture of bid and performance bonds, damages to the authority and competitors, and blacklisting, for corrupt practices and anticompetitive behaviour. IPs should be implemented pre-bid and post bid as abuses can occur at every stage of contracting and performance of contracts, and most importantly there must be proper and rigorous independent external monitoring.

In the meantime, TI-M urges the Government to walk the talk on transparency, governance and integrity and at the minimum to implement open tenders for mega projects.