HEALTH MINISTRY REFUTES VIRAL CLAIM OF CONSTRUCTION OF NEW HOSPITALS GIVEN TO 'CHOSEN' CONTRACTOR

KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 (Bernama) -- Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad today debunked viral claims that the construction of three new hospitals were given to a ‘chosen’ company, pointing out that the purported projects did not exist at all.

He explained that the Health Ministry (MOH) had studied the content of the ‘appointment letter’ and found that it claimed to involve the construction of three hospitals, the Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital in Muar, Johor; the Jelebu Hospital in Negeri Sembilan; and the Kuala Lipis Hospital in Pahang; all of which have long existed and were currently in operation.

“Currently, the MOH does not have any plans in the near future to build new hospitals to replace all three existing hospitals in question.

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“Therefore, the projects stated in the viral letter have never had approved government allocations and as such, the application by the company was not considered as it does not exist and no further action has been taken by the ministry,” he said during a Special Chambers session in Parliament here today in reply to a question by Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (MUDA-Muar) about a tender for the construction of the Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital in Muar.

On the letter, Dzulkefly said it did not state any instruction or approval for the stated company to be appointed to implement the project and that the Prime Minister’s Office had left it to the MOH to study the application and decide the action to be taken.

“This proves that the Prime Minister does not interfere with matters concerning project procurement of the MOH or any other ministry, in line with the guidelines issued to civil servants to ensure support letters or references were not misused for personal interests, introduced and effective May 21,” he added.

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-- BERNAMA