PETALING JAYA, 9 June 2009: Pakatan Rakyat (PR)-led Selangor must implement a competitive tender for Alam Flora sub-contracts to dismiss allegations of political patronage, the DAP said today.
“We are firm in our belief that these contracts must be tendered to all qualified parties in an open, transparent and competitive manner,” said DAP publicity secretary Tony Pua in a statement.
Pua said that such an open tender, even if it was limited to Class F contractors, would help the state government dismiss any lingering suspicions over the way the Alam Flora contracts were allocated.
Pua was responding to local councillor A Thiruvenggadam‘s claim yesterday that the state divides Alam Flora’s waste management contracts to political parties in the following manner: 40% to PKR, 30% to PAS, and 30% to DAP.
Thiruvenggadam said that the 11 local councils have “no say” in the selection of contractors, even though these councils pay Alam Flora annually to upkeep the cleanliness of their areas.
“The allegations, if true, will put us on a slippery slope to become a government that condones patronage and cronyism, no different from Barisan Nasional (BN),” Pua said.
“If the allegations are however, found to be false or misguided, then Thiruvenggadam must apologise for his allegations,” Pua said.
Pua urged the Selangor government to immediately investigate the matter. He called on Selangor state executive councillor for infrastructure and public amenities, Datuk Dr Hasan Mohd Ali, to confirm or deny the allegations.
Selangor state executive councillor and local government, study and research committee chairperson Ronnie Liu has rubbished the allegations.
“(Thiruvenggadam) better be able to substantiate his facts as we have never used such a formula … (and) how could he make such allegations when he is not part of the state government,” Malaysiakini reported Liu as saying. 
