Nik Nazmi to sue Chegubard for defamation over flood mitigation graft allegations
21 Dec 2023 05:59pm
Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad - FILE PIX
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Nik Nazmi described as baseless and malicious the statements by the Bersatu Information Committee member claiming that the ministry's project is now worth RM16.6 billion and that several completely unknown companies and individuals received kickbacks as proxies.
"Chegubard's allegations are baseless and show that he does not understand the government's procurement and budget allocation process.
"I strongly deny this malicious slander and will take a civil action against him soon,” he said in a statement today.
He added that this is not the first time Chegubard made such wild and baseless allegations.
Nik Nazmi said the Unity Government has reviewed all the top-priority flood mitigation projects to prioritise the critical areas and the Ministry of Finance has set the overall development allocation ceiling for 33 flood mitigation projects at RM11.8 billion, and not RM16.6 billion as claimed by Chegubard.
"Almost all the government flood mitigation projects for this year are still in the tender process. And this year letters of acceptance have been issued for 19 projects.
"There has been no allocation yet for development expenditure,” he said.
Nik Nazmi added that the government flood mitigation projects go through a transparent procurement process governed by the Ministry of Finance and a Procurement Board meeting, that does not involve him.- BERNAMA
