PKR questions AIMST cafeteria contract award to MIC leader

By Clara Chooi

July 24, 2012

 

PETALING JAYA, July 24 — PKR questioned today the award of a RM10 million contract to run the cafeteria at MIC-owned AIMST University to a party Youth leader, claiming it had resulted in millions of ringgit worth of revenue losses to the institution.

PKR national strategy and policy bureau secretary S. Gobikrishnan told a press conference here that the cafeteria was until 2006 run internally by the university but this was abruptly ceased on January 5, 2007.
As at 2006, he said, AIMST had registered revenue of RM3.28 million for its cafeteria business.

Citing documents provided by a whistleblower, Gobikrishnan said the cafeteria operations were then outsourced via direct award to Jaya Cafe Holdings Sdn Bhd, which lists MIC Youth treasurer and Penang MIC Youth chief J. Dhinagaran, his brother and two others as directors.

As a result of the award, Jaya Cafe recorded total revenue of RM20.45 million for three years from 2007 to 2009, he said.

“Why let go of a lucrative in-house contract and outsource it to an MIC Youth company?” Gobikrishnan asked.

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