Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has refuted accusations of Gamuda Bhd being his "crony", and invited Malaysians to scrutinise the construction giant's shareholding structure.
In a post on Facebook today, Najib uploaded a list of the company's top 30 shareholders, and pointed out that a number of government-linked funds sit among them.
"Are my cronies the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), Retirement Fund Incorporated (Kwap), private investment funds or insurance companies?
"No. These are all owned by the people, and the benefits are returned to the people," he said.
Najib reiterated points raised in his Facebook post from yesterday, which included how the Gamuda and MMC Corporation Bhd joint venture had won the bid for the MRT2 project fairly through a tender process in 2016 that involved four other international firms.
"Gamuda won (the bid) because they presented the plan at the cheapest price. There is no guarantee that the new contract will be cheaper through a new tender.
"It is easy for the rakyat to believe allegations that Gamuda is my crony. Are my cronies the rakyat themselves?" he asked.
On Sunday, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that the overground portion of MRT2 had been pared down by 23 percent to RM17.42 billion, adding that this would allow the government to save RM5.22 billion.
However, Putrajaya was unable to reach a deal on the underground portion, a RM16.71 billion project which was won by MMC-Gamuda.
A fresh international tender process is expected to be called within the next three months.
Najib, in his posting, did not mention MMC shareholders.
According to MMC's website, its largest shareholder with a stake of 51.76 percent is Seaport Terminal (Johore) Sdn Bhd, which is owned by tycoon Syed Mokthar Al-Bukhary.
The remaining substantial shareholders are government-linked investment funds namely PNB, EPF, Kwap and Tabung Haji.
The Pakatan Harapan government has undertaken an aggressive review of mega infrastructure projects approved by the Najib administration in recent months.
Harapan argued that these projects are no longer affordable given the debt the country is now saddled with.
