Malaysia MyPROCUREMENT portal FIASCO

What a BIG....BIG....BIG...BIG SHAME


My heart bleeds when I read about the fiasco and the "half past six" setup and information in the said MyProcurement Portal. I being a taxpayer ( already and faithfully paying taxes for the last 30 years) was initially delighted to the government so called "open-ness"; though I did have some doubts then. Now it is proven and true that we are being duped! I support the government oftenly quoted " don't always believe what you read on the internet"

The one and very simple basic requirement with this website is already wrong on day ONE - data entry errors ??? Unbelievable but true - million $$ key in as billion $$ ??? So how much can we trust the info given ?

Some excerpts:

Bernama : http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/news_lite.php?id=488622


KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 (Bernama)

Tony Pua (DAP-Petaling Jaya Utara) said action should be taken to save the
government from further embarrassment, otherwise it would make a complete
mockery of the prime minister's promise of "Performance now" to all
Malaysians.


He pointed out that not only was the data inaccurate and lacked information
but the contracts published in the system were not even complete.

"For example, only 16 out of 26 ministries have any contracts posted on the
portal. There are also no details of tender specifications, dates of tender
and awards, number of competitive bids and other relevant details," he said.

He pointed out that on Monday he issued a statement questioning the data
integrity in the newly launched portal and highlighted a doubious award of
RM6.47 billion for food supplies to the army.

"But almost immediately the Minister of Defence corrected the contract value
amount by three decimal places, from RM6.47 billion to RM6.47 million, as
updated on the portal," he said. -- BERNAMA



MalaysiaInsider : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/59005-dap-wants
-government-to-reveal-all-contracts

DAP wants government to reveal all contracts
By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 - DAP wants the government to disclose all ministerial
contracts and expenditures in its MyProcurement tender portal, and added
that the portal should be shut down and cleaned up to prevent mistakes which
were discovered this week.

DAP national publicity chief Tony Pua said the failure to publish complete
details of all contracts will only lead to more suspicion that the
government has plenty to hide and increase belief that it lacks the
political will to clean up the procurement system.

"Only 16 ministries out of 26 ministries have any contracts posted on the
portal," the Petaling Jaya Utara MP told reporters in Parliament.

.... have not made public any contracts which have been awarded by the
ministries.

Pua said that Minisry of Rural and Regional Development has only disclosed
RM15.3 million of RM2.64 billion spent which accounted for less than 0.6
per cent of all purchases while the Prime Minister's Department also only
revealed 1.5 per cent of its total expenditure or RM174.8 million from the
RM11.2 billion allocation.

"I've even been made to understand that certain ministries have objected
vehemently to publishing information on certain types of contracts, for
reasons possibly best explained by Prime Minister himself.

"By not being transparent and not publishing all contracts which have been
awarded by the government, it will be impossible for Malaysians to determine
if the government has been fair and judicious in the award of its contract,"
he added.

.... increased suspicion that the government has plenty to hide,
and has no political will to wipe out wastages, inefficiencies and
corruption associated with rent-seeking and patronage," he said.

____

the SUN : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/59005-dap-wants
-government-to-reveal-all-contracts

theSun Says

Manage MyProcurement portal professionally
Updated: 10:57AM Wed, 07 Apr 2010

HOPEFULLY, it is one of those things that blights many government department
websites that has caused the government to be seen as extravagant and a poor
manager of public funds: Poor management. It is unfortunate that due to poor
management and poor state of readiness that a portal set up to show that the
government is transparent and careful with public funds has appeared to
indicate that it is extravagant and has little respect for the rakyat's
money. It is often poor management or lack of proper management that has
caused several websites to be out of date or not updated and which have been
derogatorily referred to as cobwebs.


True enough the Finance Ministry, whose procurement division administers
MyProcurement, admitted that the RM6.4 billion is an error due to the wrong
figure provided by the Defence Ministry. While the figure, of course, is
going to be corrected it seems strange that a portal set up to demonstrate
that the government is transparent seems to provide insufficient details on
the tenders and thereby arousing a lot of suspicion. For instance a tender
to supply and deliver protective body vests for the armed forces was awarded
for RM82.8 million but does not specify the number. Thus poor management and
probably the unreadiness of the government agencies to be completely
transparent and frank may have undermined the purpose for which the
MyProcurement portal was set up. A lot of care should have been exercised
and much preparation should have taken place before a portal such as
MyProcurement be allowed to make its public debut.
____