Procurement Scandal: Minister must investigate deviant facemask supply that risked frontliners' lives

SHAH ALAM - The Health Ministry should get to the bottom of allegations that the lives of frontliners dealing with Covid 19 cases in April 2020 after being supplied unsuitable facemasks that had failed tests conducted by the National Infection Control and Antibiotics Committee.

Former Deputy Health Minister Dr Lee Boon Chye urged Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa to investigate the matter, as this showed a blatant disregard for the safety of frontliners who were already risking putting their lives on the line for the country.

"The current Health Minister should investigate this procurement further because the committee is the gatekeeper," said Dr Lee, responding to an expose by Sinar Daily on an alleged RM20 million procurement of facemasks by the Health Ministry.

After being distributed to hospitals and clinics nationwide, as informed in a circular from the Health Ministry on March 31, 2020, the Health Ministry then issued a circular on April 12 informing relevant agencies that the masks had failed tests conducted by the National Infection Control and Antibiotics Committee and did not meet the specifications of the N95 standard masks suitable for protection in close-contact situations with Covid 19 patients.

The April 12 circular also stated that the masks procured should only be used in regular medical service and not for those dealing with Covid 19 cases. However, sources then revealed that the exact RM20 million shipment of masks were then forced to be used by frontliners due to lack of alternatives.

"This should not be happening. Of course there may be a situation where you cannot find sufficient face masks but I don’t know whether that was the case or not. However, even under those circumstances it should not happen,” he said.

Dr Lee stressed that this showed that the procurement had not been done according to the required standards and could have possibly been deviated, alleging there could have been political interference, among many other allegations of irregularities in Covid 19 procurements during the pandemic which Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has vowed to bring to justice.

“If it is the Health Ministry that upholds the standards yet didn’t follow it, then who should follow?” he questioned.

He said such cases should not have happened as the National Infection Control and Antibiotics Committee played the role as gatekeeper to ensure the safety standards were followed accordingly. Thus he urged the Ministry to get to bottom of it.

“The other part is the finance. Did we pay the price of the N95 facemasks, but then supplied substandard facemasks? That is the problem in the financing part of the procurement. It should be investigated whether there were any deviations or not,” he exclaimed.

On Feb 11, Sinar Daily revealed that the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) had already conducted investigations into this procurement in April 2020 and in 2022, echoed by Parti Rakyat Malaysia Deputy President Datuk Ezam Md Nor. .

Ezam, was part of the parliamentary committee that founded the MACC, demanded that the anti-graft agency reopened investigations into the case and bring those who were accountable to justice, as it was a matter of public interest that the safety of frontliners who were serving the country had been blatantly neglected by deviant procurements and their lives put at risk.