Deputy health minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni said consultations with the AGC were initiated following PLSB’s refusal to comply with a letter of demand issued by the ministry in September.
“For your information, we issued a letter of demand for the reimbursement of RM15.341 million on Sept 13, and gave PLSB 14 days to respond,” he said during today’s special chamber proceedings.
“However, PLSB responded by requesting us to withdraw the letter and said they were ready to negotiate the outstanding payment of RM1.07 million for the ventilation upgrade project.”
Lukanisman was responding to a supplementary question from Lim Lip Eng (PH-Kepong) on why the health ministry accepted the lackadaisical attitude from PLSB and the supplier from China over the faulty ventilators.
“I recommend taking action by blacklisting the company, Pharmaniaga, or the ventilator provider in China,” Lim said.
“I urge the government to seek assistance from its counterparts in China to blacklist the supplier from the Chinese market and globally.”
In response, Lukanisman said the ministry may consider Lim’s proposed measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
According to the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) report last month, the health ministry approved an advance payment of RM30 million to PLSB to procure 500 units of ventilators, with the balance to be settled after the machines were received.
A total of 136 ventilators worth RM20.1 million were supplied to health facilities under the ministry in 2020, between April 1 and May 19. However, only 28 were deemed usable.
An additional RM3.97 million was approved for PLSB to upgrade certain ventilators, bringing the overall procurement cost of 136 ventilators to RM24.07 million.
Of the 15 units replaced, only four units were functional. This meant 104 out of the 136 units obtained were unusable.
On the health ministry’s instructions, the remaining RM6.97 million from the advance payment was returned on June 15.
PLSB is supposed to reimburse an additional RM1.07 million for the ventilator upgrades, bringing the total procurement cost to RM24.1 million.