Today’s Sin Chew newspaper carries the article “Anti-corruption agency SPRM stated that the leakages for government allocation is up to 40%”.
If we take the federal budget of RM280 Billion in 2018 and deduct those 50% (RM140 Billion) fixed expenses such as emoluments, debt servicing, pensions and obligatory payments to state government, the amount of leakages is up to RM RM140x 40%=RM56 Billion.
We just need to reduce leakages to 10% (this is still high by any standard), we would have saved RM42 Billion which is enough to offset the GST revenue.
As you know, the GST is affecting all Malaysians especially the poor people. The poor will be affected badly.
If we take the federal budget of RM280 Billion in 2018 and deduct those 50% (RM140 Billion) fixed expenses such as emoluments, debt servicing, pensions and obligatory payments to state government, the amount of leakages is up to RM RM140x 40%=RM56 Billion.
We just need to reduce leakages to 10% (this is still high by any standard), we would have saved RM42 Billion which is enough to offset the GST revenue.
As you know, the GST is affecting all Malaysians especially the poor people. The poor will be affected badly.
The World Bank system
The best way to prevent corruption is to follow the World Bank system.
As we all know, the BN Government has been giving out large contracts and concessions without calling competitive tenders. For examples the toll roads the cost of which is so much inflated that all the road users have to pay higher toll. It is also unreasonable that when the road needed widening to accommodate the increased traffic volume, road users have to pay higher toll or the Government has to lengthen the toll collection period.
No one knows when the concessionaire will stop toll collections.
How to call competitive tenders?
- All the tenderers must be prequalified so that when they are awarded the contracts they can complete the work efficiently without requiring more time and money.
- All the tenderers must know that they must offer their cheapest price and they will not be awarded if their price is not the cheapest.
- All tender submissions must comply with the original design or requirement so that the authorities or employer can evaluate all the tenders on the same basis.
- However, any tenderer can submit alternative offer which must be cheaper than his original tender.
- Since to evaluate any alternative design will involve additional cost and delay, the tenderer must agree to standby his tender price if he is required to upgrade his alternative design to comply with the original specifications. Otherwise, there is no reason to consider his alternative offer.
- Always award the contract to the cheapest tenderer. Never negotiate with any tenderer because this will encourage corruption and bribery, especially if the contract is a large amount, say Rm 25 billion. What is the difference between 25 or 24 billion? Who would not be tempted to accept Rm one billion bribe?
- During your negotiation with any tenderer you might be tempted to increase your offer in terms of price, land or relax in terms of condition or specifications. You must bear in mind that if the other tenderers know that you had varied your offer, they would have offered you a much better tender price. Moreover, your new offer can also attract many other tenderers who were not interested before.
Another safe guard to prevent corruption
The number of tenderers is important. A corrupt Official can invite only a few contractors who are known to him to submit tender. The few contractors can easily collude among themselves to fix the tender prices with some provision for bribing the corrupt official.
Conclusion:
I am not a politician but I know politics is very important because it affects all the people. When you pay road toll, you must bear in mind that you are being cheated by the BN Government because they gave out these concessions without calling competitive tenders.