DEWAN Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul has put an end to the dispute over the development cost of the Central Database Hub (Padu).
He said he had reviewed the explanations from all parties involved, including Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam) (pic), Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli and Chong Zhemin (PH-Kampar).
“I have gone through all the explanations. Both Ayer Hitam and Pandan’s (Rafizi) statements referred to different matters and both are right,” Johari explained in the Dewan Rakyat.
“Ayer Hitam referred to Padu’s overall cost from 2023 to 2025, whereas Pandan referred to Padu’s development cost up until September this year.”
He added that the discussion had been brought up from different perspectives.
Johari said he found no prima facie case regarding the matters raised, under Standing Orders 36(6) and 36(12).
“This matter does not need to be raised further, as I have already made a decision, which has been sent in a letter to Kampar. Here’s the closure. I do not want it to be raised any more,” he said.
He emphasised that while there may be differing opinions, the facts presented by both Ayer Hitam and Pandan were accurate.
“Case closed,” he said.
The Speaker’s decision follows a dispute earlier when Dr Wee questioned the actual development cost of Padu, with Chong accusing Dr Wee of attempting to mislead the House.
Dr Wee maintained that he referred to parliamentary records when he remarked that the development and implementation of the Padu system from 2023 to 2025 was expected to cost RM85.27mil.
Recently, Rafizi said the figure was untrue, revealing that only about RM31mil had been spent as of September.
He clarified that the costs included RM800,000 for servers, firewall and network security, RM4.6mil for platform database encryption and other purposes, and RM6.4mil for cloud services.
The heftiest portion of the expenditure, Rafizi said, was the RM19.3mil allocated for nationwide registration operations.
