Describing it a 'fiasco', Pua said the bluff was called when a representative from the National Key Economic Area lab disclosed that government agencies will pay private company and email provider Tricubes Berhad about 50 sen per email.
This revelation came just two days after Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak personally wrote on his Twitter account: "Let me clarify that the 1Malaysia Email is a private sector project. No public money is involved, and it's entirely voluntary."
"It is almost comical the way Najib and Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) officials are heaping layers of misleading and contradictory statements in an attempt to cover up the 'Malaysia email project' fiasco," said Pua (right)."First, Pemandu had to take the trouble to edit the description of the project from a 'government initiative' to a 'private sector initiative', despite the fact that Tricubes had announced on Bursa Malaysia that it was awarded the email project by the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu)," he said.
"However, in a radio interview with BFM (business radio station) yesterday, business services NKEA communications content and infrastructure director Dr Fadhlullah Suhaimi Abdul Malek disclosed that government agencies will pay Tricubes Bhd to use the company's 1Malaysia e-mail database," said Pua.
It was reported that Fadhlullah Suhaimi had said he expected agencies to pay Tricubes about 50 sen per e-mail, which he claimed was still "cheaper than the RM1 printing, stationery, postage and dispatch cost of sending a regular letter."
'Scheme to fleece tax payers'
"This disclosure comes as a complete shock to Malaysians because the PM had assured us that the government will not be paying a sen for the project!
"And yet, it is now obvious that the '1Malaysia email project' is a scheme designed to fleece tax-payers monies with a service that is completely unnecessary," Pua said in a statement today.
He said that banks and telecommunication companies send monthly statements to email accounts for free.
The creation of an 'official email' account, on the other hand, is "absolutely unnecessary" in official dealings with the government giving rise to suspicion on the possibility of money being channelled into certain pockets.
"The signing up of a '1Malaysia' account is not only a hassle, it is clearly a barrier created specifically for certain parties to profit.
"Clearly the design and nature of the '1Malaysia email' project is to create an artificial need for a concession to provide rent-seeking opportunities for companies which may find it difficult to provide real value-added services in a competitive environment.
"Given that the prime minister and Pemandu officials have been tripping over each other to provide flip-flopping explanations which repeatedly contradict each other, Pemandu must do the right thing and disclose in full the contract awarded to Tricubes Berhad so that the public can know the full truth," he said.It was first reported that local IT player Tricubes would invest RM50 million of its own money to launch the 1Malaysia Email service, available for all Malaysians above 18 years old as part of the most recent 12 entry-point projects as announced by Najib.
However, it was later revealed that Tricubes was classified as GN3, or a company in need of debt restructuring by Bursa Malaysia. The CEO had later explained problem as being caused by "heavyinvestment in research and development".
"The failure of Pemandu to do so will only make a mockery of its own Government Transformation Programme (GTP) which calls for the elimination of rent-seeking while increasing transparency and accountability.
"Pemandu should protect its reputation by calling a spade a spade, and call for the withdrawal of the project which has without a doubt, become an international embarrassment for the Najib administration," said Pua.
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