Parliament passes to notify government to terminate Nexbis agreement

The Parliament has passed to notify the government to terminate the Border Control System project agreement between the government and Malaysian company Nexbis.

The report compiled by the Parliament Public Accounts Committee regarding the termination of the Border Control System project agreement was passed unanimously by the 74 MPs present at today’s parliament sitting.

Two major issues were noted in the report. The first was to notify the government to terminate the agreement signed with Nexbis on 17 October 2010, and to include this in the budget recommendations. The second issue was to ensure that the agreements signed by the government with different parties are in accordance with the country’s constitution and laws.

“To advise the government to pay more attention to ensuring that the agreements signed by the government with different parties are in accordance with the country’s constitution and laws, and to refrain from signing agreements that include issues that concern the parliament’s jurisdiction without the consent of the parliament,” says that report.

The report stated that investigations by the committee showed that the government is liable to pay Nexbis a sum of $166 million while the government will receive a meagre amount of $8 million from the project.

Reflecting on the time the border control system agreement was signed, Committee Chairman Nazim said that the negligence of the then Attorney General was quite apparent. Dr. Ahmed Ali Sawad was the Attorney General in 2010 when the agreement was signed.

Nazim said that the former Attorney General had held a meeting with the Department of Immigration and that the agreement was amended in a manner agreed upon in this meeting, and that none of the decisions during the meeting was communicated in writing.

Nazim also said that the former Solicitor General of the Attorney General’s Office had given a statement to the Anti-Corruption Commission stating that none of the points agreed upon by the Attorney General during the meeting had been amended in the agreement.