26 November 2019
Good morning from Parliament. This morning we opened with a hot question to the agriculture minister on the issue of Nafas.
A few days ago, Wee Ka Siong raised a complaint that the minister issued a letter of support for a negotiated tender for Nafas. The prime minister went on to defend the practice of negotiated tender, which is contrary to Pakatan Harapan manifesto.
However it is important to stress that Nafas is not a private company. Nafas is a statutory body which looks after the welfare of its 920,000 shareholders/members, who are all farmers.
The minister explained that when he took over Nafas, he started to reorganise Nafas, weed out corruption, made reports to SPRM, and is trying to ensure more transparency in its operations and governance.
He also said that in issuing the controversial letter, he did so not for personal gain or to enrich a private company, but he did so to look after the interests of 920,000 farmers. He also said that no award has been given yet and that the tender process is ongoing.