Yeo Bee Yin's Message To Businesses Is Clear: Personal Connection Will Not Help Them
"Knowing me will not give you an advantage in any project."
By Sadho Ram — 12 Jul 2018, 03:44 PM
To businesses hoping to gain advantage through their personal connection with Yeo Bee Yin, the Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Minister has a clear message
The newly-minted Cabinet Minister has made it clear that she has no favours in terms of a government project to give to anyone who may know her or anyone in her Ministry.
"In my Ministry, you don't need to know me. You only need to know how. Knowing me will not give you an advantage in any project. Make sure you know how," Yeo said in her inaugural town hall session with energy stakeholders today, reported The Star Online.
The 35-year-old Minister also revealed that the new administration will stop the practice of approving projects through direct negotiation or direct award and will only go through open tenders
The open tender system, Yeo said, will help create a "level playing field".
"So, do not be disappointed if you cannot arrange a one-to-one appointment with the ministry (because) you are still at a level playing field when it comes to anything that we open for tender, and only open tender in the ministry," The Edge Malaysia reported her as saying, who also added that she herself is not on the tender board.
Yeo emphasised that she wants to listen to businesses as her Ministry wants to "create an environment where businesses can innovate, invest, where projects can become bankable, so we can have a good ecosystem for our renewable energy to grow."
Yeo also revealed that her Ministry is reviewing Independent Power Producer (IPP) contracts that were awarded during Barisan Nasional rule. Meanwhile, the Minister has cancelled four new IPPs so far.
According to a report in Malay Mail, Yeo Bee Yin said that the four new IPPs, whose cancellation is expected to be ratified by the Cabinet next week, are "not needed" and will not incur the government any extra compensation cost.
"For certain reasons, the previous government had approved a lot of IPPs, IPP contracts, through direct negotiation, direct award to build up our capacity and users need to pay for that capacity. Because of this, the new government is actually reviewing many of these IPP contracts.
"These IPP contracts, that were directly awarded to not deserving companies, we are reviewing them, especially those that bring no cost implication to the government and we have actually decided to cancel four of them," Yeo said.
