COMMENT | Another ‘conspiracy’ to cheat the nation

COMMENT | On Tuesday, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) dropped a bombshell which would normally have produced reverberations causing the public to sit and up and ponder.

But with so much politicking added to the lack of emphasis on good governance, the shocking revelations were treated as the norm or have been accepted as a Malaysian malaise.

The PAC concluded that the government had indirectly and unnecessarily bailed out two firms that rolled out the automatic enforcement system (AES) traffic cameras in 2012.

The report, which was tabled in Parliament said that the government, through the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT), had paid RM555 million in 2015 to acquire the two AES contractors - Ates Sdn Bhd and Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd.

This was despite audit firm KPMG’s valuation of just RM251 million for the two firms. KPMG was engaged to do so by the Finance Ministry in 2013 as part of a due diligence process.

The difference is humungous – RM304 million. Yet, there has been no plausible reason or explanation...