Disgraced corporate genius and ex-Tourism Malaysia chairman Dato Siew Ka Wei (SIEW) appears to be in the centre of another failed lavish government contract.
The man who in January this year spent four days in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) lock-up over a probe into the dubious RM100 million “Speedy Gonzales” tech deal involving Tourism Malaysia (TM)/Ministry of Tourism and Culture is now implicated in a Ministry of Education (MOE) rip-off.
SIEW and/or his outfits are seen as one of the key players in the disastrous RM340 million project, which involved MCMC Funds, to digitalise teaching in schools nationwide.
The initiative was meant to narrow the digital divide between teachers and students, which was a good decision, but it ended with all and sundry exploiting the said failed project.
Despite on 17 April 2018 Jawatankuasa PEMANDU Program ICT Sekolah Kementerian Pendidekan Malaysia Sessi Khas 2/2018 “Memutuskan bahawa Fasa 6 ditangguhkan sehingga selepas PRU 14”, Padu Corporation (PADU) defied the said decision and on 27 April 2018 (some 12 days before 14th GE) it proceeded to pay another RM18,402,690.00 to Utusan Melayu (M) Berhad (Utusan) in lightning speed for Phase 6.
At that material time, PADU and MOE had full knowledge that the said tablet project for Phase 2 to 5 were failures. After the payment of RM18,402,269.00, not a single tablet was delivered to teachers!
ZERO GOVERNANCE IN PADU
The funds in PADU were managed with zero governance, to say the least. For example, the proof of deliveries of the tablets by Utusan to the teachers were done by sending copies of Statutory Declaration (SD) affirmed by its Group CEO, Dato’ Mohd Noordin Bin Abbas to PADU. Based on the said SD, PADU’s CEO, Puan Khadijah binti Abdullah, and PADU’s CFO, En Ahmad Izzat bin Ahmad Zaki, happily made payments of more of than RM10 million each! The little napoleons in PADU, treated the funds in PADU as their own.
The funds from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) were channeled to PADU, a company incorporated by guarantee under the purview of MOE.
PADU awarded the contract to Utusan Melayu (M) Berhad (UTUSAN) without open tender to supply free 430,000 units of computer tablets with pre-installed Tutor Guru app and Utusan Malaysia e-paper to teachers by June 2018.
It is startling that Dato Siew, the former Chairman of TM, executive Chairman of Ancom Bhd, managing director of Nylex Bhd, Redberry Media Group (Redberry) that owned the defunct Malay Mail, wore the Utusan Malaysia hat to attend the meeting in MOE.
In the minutes of a “Pre-Price Negotiation” meeting on 13 June 2016 between PADU and Utusan Melayu, Dato Siew was listed without any designation under the Utusan team that attended the session.
The meeting to discuss pricing and supply of the gadgets to teachers in Sarawak under the first phase saw the attendance of all the MOE top guns.
They were the then Ketua Setiausaha (Tan Sri Dr Madinah binti Mohamad, who was later appointed the Auditor General), Timbalan Ketua Setiausaha (P) (En Jamil bin Rakon), the then Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif unit Pelaksanaan Prestasi PADU (Puan Khadijah binti Abdullah, whose contract expired on 31 May 2019 and was not renewed), Setiausaha Bahagian Perolehan dan pengurusan Aset (Tuan Haji Shahid-Din bin Khatib), Pengarah Bahagian Teknologi Pendidikan (Tuan Haji Zaidi Bin Yazid), Timbalan Setiausaha Bahagian (K) Bahagian Kewangan (b), Ketua Pegawai Kewangan Unit Pelaksanaan & Prestasi Pendidikan (PADU) (En Ahmad Izzat bin Ahmad Zaki), Pengarah (Transformasi) Unit Pelaksanaan & Prestasi Pendidikan (PADU) (En Mohaammed Zekri bin Ghazali), Pegawai Khas KSU Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (KPM) (Cik Afidah binti Ashad) and Pengurus kewangan Unit Pelaksanaan & Prestasi Pendidikan (PADU) and (En Mohd Hizwan bin Ahmad).
According to reliable sources in MOE, the “three musketeers” in the scandalous tablet deal in PADU were:
Puan Khadijah binti Abdullah, the then CEO of PADU;
En Asrul Satria bin Abdul Rahim, the Special Officer to CEO; and
En Ahmad Izzat bin Ahmad Zaki, CFO of PADU
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