KUALA LUMPUR – The Selangor government has to make public the contract details of the Demand Responsive Transit (DRT) pilot project awarded to Asia Mobiliti and Badan Bas Coach Sdn Bhd in the interest of transparency and accountability, said an opposition lawmaker.
Gombak Setia assemblyman Muhammad Hilman Idham said the state also has to explain why the contracts were awarded via direct negotiations, and not through open tender, as it involves public funds.
He added that the state administration should cancel the contracts and review the DRT implementation model.
“The exclusive appointments of these two companies raises questions, such as how much did the state invest, what are their business models and how much are the returns.
“The success of DRT’s proof of concept alone is not enough to validate the appointment of the two companies. The concept is nothing new since there are e-hailing services that have efficient and sophisticated applications,” he said in a statement.
Although the contracts were awarded on December 20, the state government has come under fire seeing that Asia Mobiliti co-founder and chief executive, Ramachandran Muniandy, is the husband of Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh.
Yesterday, Asia Mobiliti said an open tender process would have resulted in a monopoly, and that only two companies in Malaysia are qualified to provide these services.
The DRT system is described as a shared transportation service that groups passengers based on their locations and sends vehicles accordingly. This system can adjust routes on-demand, unlike traditional services that follow fixed routes and schedules.
Asia Mobiliti said the appointment was for nine months and required investment from both service providers for vehicle procurement and hiring, as well as the technology’s continuous optimisation and development.
Earlier, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief Tan Sri Azam Baki also said the agency had no issue with the appointment. – May 28, 2024