PUTRAJAYA: The Ministry of Education (MOE) has refuted claims that the procurement of the Dual Language Programme (DLP) textbooks was through direct negotiations.
MOE in a statement yesterday clarified that procurement of the DLP textbooks for this year was implemented via two methods, namely open tender for secondary school textbooks and direct negotiations for primary school textbooks.
It said the publication of Science Year 3 and Mathematics Year 3 text books and reprinting of 266,110 copies of the textbooks was given to Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) through direct negotiations.
This was in line with the decision of the 1974 National Action Council which stated that DBP was responsible for publishing primary school textbooks.
“The publication of secondary school DLP textbooks namely Science Form 3 and Mathematics Form 3 (108,680 copies) is implemented through open tender by the MOE,” it said.
According to the statement, the press release on Jan 13 was referring to the approval for the MOE to negotiate direct with DBP to publish primary school DLP textbooks (new and reprinted) as stated in the Finance Ministry approval letter dated Sept 18, 2018.
The MOE added that for the open tender, advertisements were posted on the e-Perolehan portal which was the usual practice.
It said the evaluation process involved three committees namely the Material Evaluation Committee, the Publisher/Company Capability Evaluation Committee and the Price Assessment Committee.
The scores obtained from the three committees were considered by the Procurement Board chaired by the ministry’s deputy secretary-general (Development) and members comprised representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Works Department and three MOE divisions.
In addition it said the MOE was also taking all the necessary steps to supply secondary school DLP textbooks as soon as possible.
Last Friday, the Malaysian Malay Printing Press Association (PPPMM) questioned the MOE’s action in not giving the project to non-member publishers and the delay in the procurement of the textbooks. — Bernama