TOURISM MINISTER TRIES TO CLARIFY

The Tourism Ministry has denied the Auditor-General's Report 2010 that it overspent on advertisements to a tune of RM270mil.

“Ministry of Tourism Malaysia did not spend more. The report says that the amount of direct buy is more but not the total amount of promotion is more, there's a difference,” Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said.

The report said the ministry had resorted to direct negotiations instead of open tenders which led to the overpayment of advertising fees.

Dr Ng said with direct negotiations, the ministry could do away with the middleman. She is avoiding the issue here. Direct negotiations means that there will be intermediaries as has been the practice in Malaysia for years and more so in MOT.

"The prices we paid are never above the market price,” she said. We cannot believe this.

"Our promotion budget was the lowest in 2009 and 2010, but the amount of direct [negotiations were] higher because we wanted to go right on and get as much value for money as possible,” she said at the launch of Art Expo Malaysia 2011 here. This is where she contradicts. It is very typical of her to say such things. We have heard it all. There is nothing new here. Same old jazz.