Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the matter with regards to Digital Nasional Berhad the main entity in charge of rolling out the country’s 5G network will be decided next week after news report revealed that all is not well.
Without saying much, Anwar said he will discuss on the matter with probably his Minister and the parties at DNB who till now do not have a Chief Executive Officer.
This comes after Singapore media Channel News Asia published a scathing commentary on the mess DNB and the country’s 5G rollout plan has been with mobile network operators discouraged by the Ministry of Finance owned entity. In an exclusive coverage, CNA said that the government officials and industry executives have acknowledged that after more than four months, both sides have yet to agree on so-called condition precedents (CP), legal parlance for events that must take place before a contract can come into effect. The CPs include the appointment of directors who would represent the private telcos in DNB, and the completion of three confidential audits on the state-owned entity by external experts. The audits would cover its financial standing, due diligence on large contracts the company has signed and a technical evaluation of its 5G systems.
“The audits are ongoing, but there is no agreement on the composition of the board. Nothing is moving because telco’s are starting to have doubts on the path forward,” acknowledged a senior Finance Ministry official, who is monitoring the 5G situation it said.
However, DNB refuted the reports and said all matter related to awarding of contracts have been transparent and have subscribed to government procedures. In a statement, the company said the tender and procurement processes are structured according to the strictest governance standards and best practices. DNB said it has always been open and transparent in its awarding of tenders and contracts – this matter has been addressed in detail various times in Parliament and reported in the media, repeatedly disproving the allegations.
