KUALA LUMPUR – All 11 members of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s (UKM) tender procurement committee have been penalised for failing to comply with procedures in three out of seven tenders worth a total of RM58.45 million.
A source told Scoop that an internal investigation by the Higher Education Ministry found procedural breaches in at least two or three of the tenders highlighted in the Auditor-General’s Report 2/2025.
While the specific disciplinary actions taken were not disclosed – whether suspensions, transfers, or resignations – the source said the committee was collectively punished as decisions had been made jointly.
“It was a collective decision, so the punishment was collective,” the source said.
At the time, the committee was chaired by UKM’s then-vice chancellor Professor Datuk Mohd Ekwan Toriman.
The Auditor-General’s report, released on Monday, revealed that the UKM tender committee had bypassed recommendations by its Technical Evaluation, Financial Evaluation, and Pre-Tender Committees when awarding contracts.
The report found that three out of the seven procurement exercises violated standard procedures.
In one case, a supplier of Linear Accelerator (LINAC) equipment was selected despite its system being incompatible with the university’s existing ARIA integration platform. Another tender process saw a catering company that had failed the technical evaluation being shortlisted for the final round.
The committee was also found to have awarded a lift replacement project to a company blacklisted as a “sick project” contractor, again disregarding the recommendations of the university’s three key evaluation panels.
This led to the tender being awarded to a firm that ultimately failed to deliver the contract within the stipulated timeframe.
The Auditor-General also noted that UKM had failed to appoint a representative from the Finance Ministry to its procurement committee, while the appointed representative from the Higher Education Ministry was absent from meetings related to the three tenders in question.
The report stressed that the vice chancellor, as committee chair, is responsible for ensuring proper governance of procurement and operations, in line with Subsection 12(3) of the UKM Constitution and the principle of duty of care.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Zambry Abd Kadir is expected to address the matter in Parliament during the question-and-answer session Tuesday. – July 22, 2025