Irwan said the committee, which comes under the finance ministry, is tasked with looking into the project contracts, whether they are direct negotiations, open tenders or limited tenders.

“It is a committee decision. There is a standard operating procedure for the committee, who will go into the technical and commercial viability of the projects, do the ratings and then award the project.

“Even if there is a prime minister or minister’s signature or directive, it still goes to the committee.

“It is a collective decision by the committee,” he said during a town hall session with the media on the 2016 Auditor-General’s Report here today.

Irwan was asked how the government plans to limit the use and influence of direct tenders, as the problem with direct tenders continues to surface yearly in the report.

Irwan said this depended on the project itself. He added that there were times when an open tender exercise could delay the project, so in the interest of saving time and cost, direct negotiations are done.

However, he said of late, government contracts awarded through direct negotiations were seeing a downward trend, with more going for open tenders.

Some 59.7% of government contracts are awarded through open tender, 39% through direct negotiations and 1.2% through limited tenders.

On the decision to appoint a contractor chosen by the finance minister to build the incomplete Bera Hospital in Pahang, Irwan said the procurement committee, when awarding the contract, had found the company, Maju Jaya Prasarana Sdn Bhd, to be qualified.

This was despite the Public Works Department saying otherwise.

“We saw that technically, the company was qualified.

“The cost proposed also matched the project cost estimate. That is important,” he said.

However, Irwan said whatever happened during implementation was a different matter altogether, and that the relevant ministries needed to monitor the projects.

The RM88 million project was awarded via direct negotiations.