He hoped any new bidding would be carried out through open bidding.
Johari said the new government must review the track record and experience of the companies before awarding the contracts to them.
The former Titiwangsa MP said companies handling IPPs should not have any political connections and must have experience in the field.
Johari said it was crucial to award the contracts to companies with a good track record to avoid IPPs from falling into foreign hands, but “a good local company with experience will be able to run the IPP on its own”.
“Once a company is appointed through open bidding, it can then have a foreign joint venture partner to provide technology but this partner should only hold a minority share,” he told FMT.
He was commenting on the Pakatan Harapan government’s announcement earlier that they are looking at cancelling four new IPP contracts which were approved by the previous government.
Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin did not disclose details of the companies involved but said one of the IPPs was a public-listed firm.
Yeo said the ministry was also studying ways to enhance competitiveness among industry players to generate power in order to control electricity costs in the country.
Economist Yeah Kim Leng, from Sunway University, said most of the contracts under the BN government were a result of direct negotiations.
This could be one of the grounds to cancel the contracts as they could be costly for the government to maintain, he said.
“If there is a 30% supply margin of power, the additional margin would be a burden to the government.
“Some of this could be overpriced and the government could be reviewing the contracts to look at cost savings.”