The RM185.07mil contract awarded to Heitech Padu Bhd for MySikap was through open tender, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
The contract is for the maintenance of the Road Transport Department’s (JPJ) MySikap website. It was awarded to the said company as their bid was the lowest and most reasonable.
Anthony Loke said a submission awarding the three-year contract to the firm for the amount was sent to the Finance Ministry and was approved by the Treasury on Feb 2. The letter of acceptance was issued by JPJ to Heitech Padu on April 5.
He dismissed claims that the contract was given to the company as one of its major shareholders is Farhash Wafa Salvador, who is Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s former political secretary.
Loke said Farhash had acquired 15.9% of the firm’s shares only on March 16 this year. “This means he acquired the shares after the contract was awarded to the company on Feb 2 and not before it secured the project.
“As emphasised by the Prime Minister, after Farhash acquired the shares in the company, there has been no other government contract offered to Heitech Padu till this day,” he said in a press conference at the Transport Ministry here yesterday.
Loke said Anwar and the Cabinet viewed very seriously the insinuations by certain parties that the contract was awarded to Heitech Padu due to the prime minister’s close ties with Farhash.
“Farhash is no longer with the government and is not serving the government in any capacity.
“If there are parties who are still dissatisfied with this clarification, the Prime Minister welcomes them to lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission for a thorough investigation,’’ he added.
Loke disclosed that two other companies that met the technical and financial prerequisites had also vied for the contract with bids of RM186.8mil and RM199.5mil. He said the ceiling price for the contract was RM207.3mil.
The contract was for a three-year term as it is deemed a new contract, instead of an extension.
“Usually, maintenance contracts are long term. This is a new contract and not an extension of contract. If it is an extension then it will be on a year-to-year basis,” he said.
The contract comprised two job scopes, namely MySikap and Mainframe. MySikap was an online platform offering various services such as vehicle registration, road tax and driving licence renewals, while Mainframe provided servers to store data from MySikap.
In March 2023, JPJ decided to merge both components to a single tender and for it to be overseen by a single company for more effective monitoring and management.
