SHAH ALAM, 7 Apr: Criticism from the former Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, regarding the cut-off system practiced by the state government leads to corruption and abuse of power is deemed unfounded.

Speaking at the winding-up session at the Selangor State Assembly (DNS) session today, the Chief Minister, Mohamed Azmin Ali, said that the richest state still practices the system by adopting the concept of ‘value for money’.

He said what distinguishes the new system is that the cut-off calculating system still remains but through an open tender and quotation process.

“I am disappointed by the attitude of Port Klang for the unfounded accusations. I do not want to quarrel and have problems with him.

“Just be fair because the state government today is trying our best to improve the system,” he said.

Previously, Abdul Khalid (independent-Port Klang) criticised Mohamed Azmin’s administration which ended the policy system introduced by him in 2008 when the Bukit Antarabangsa Assemblyman took over the administration of the Selangor government in November 2014.

Abdul Khalid in his argument said that the open tender system which he introduces was not only aimed to address corruption problems and abuse of power, but that it was even able to create effective competition and address the issue of the middleman.

Mohamed Azmin explained that the termination of the open tender concept was done on grounds that projects completed were of low quality.

“The new ‘cut-off’ policy is based on the problems faced, primarily about projects that are ‘sick’,” he said.

NS