Pavilion untuk Ekspo Shanghai Se Dunia 2010: Kerajaan harus membatalkan kontrak kepada Venturepharm Asia dan mengadakan tender semula!
It is an open secret that Grace Chen Oyan Yun Shai is politically well-connected as we can see that many of the companies which were awarded contracts by the Malaysian Tourism Board are directly or indirectly connected to her. (Please read comment by Kang in previous post.)
Such award of contracts to a questionable company like Venturepharm Asia will definitely encourage more brain-drain as professionals see no future in Malaysia. The latest case of such ridiculosity had to do with the conceptualising, designing and construction of the proposed Malaysian pavilion in the shape of a Malaysian Minangkabau roof for the upcoming 2010 Shanghai World Expo.
Such a project of national pride, in the first place, should have been a 100% Malaysian effort. But, no, the project was somehow ‘hijacked’ to a foreign company in China which has absolutely no knowledge of our local Minangkabau culture and history, resulting in a ‘rojak’ design of a pavilion which had incorporated graphic nuances that are more Indonesian rather than Malaysian. This cannot be accepted. To the more knowledgeable people, this will appear to be a gross misrepresentation of our local Minangkabau culture and Malaysia will yet again become a laughing stock of the world!
Whether it had become obvious to many, the facts revealed in my postings regarding this issue clearly showed conflict of interests all over the place especially on the part of Ng Yen Yen.
Up to this date, the Ministry of Tourism has not made public the members of the Tender Committee, which had purportedly made the decision to appoint Venturepharm Asia, which did not take part in the first tender.
What’s most glaring in this ugly episode is the following fact. After the first completed tender was canceled and a second one called for, apparently for the ‘convenience’ of Venturepharm Asia, the company somehow was able to table a tender price that was exactly RM1,000 short of the RM20 million reserved price, resulting in the company being awarded the project. If this did not smell most foul, then I won’t know what would.
In view of the questionable way the tender was finally concluded, the many conflict of interests that had occurred, and, the on-going investigation by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the MACC into Venturepharm Asia, the Government has no alternative but to cancel the award and call for a re-tender by another committee with members outside the Ministry of Tourism.
– Terjemahan oleh Cik Zalarina bte Hj Zainal Abidin
