KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 — Former deputy international trade and industry minister (Miti) Ong Kian Ming said four of the nine direct negotiation payments revealed by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) yesterday happened before the last general election in May 2018.

In a Twitter thread posted at midnight, Ong who is also the Bangi MP said the four projects — worth RM8.2 million — happened before the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government took over Putrajaya and called for Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz to check his facts.

"(RM) 545k (545,000) was spent on a Young CEO Summit 2018 for Youtubers under Miti’s direct nego list of contracts but according to this facebook page, this event was organized in March 2018, before GE14.

"RM5.999m (million) was spent on an event called Himpunan Usahawan Bumiputera (HUB) under Miti’s direct nego list of contracts but this event took place in March 2018, again, before GE14.

"RM999k was spent on an event called Jom Niaga Wilayah Utara under MITI’s direct nego list of contracts but this event took place in Jan 2018, before GE14…

"RM632k was spent on an event called MINI SDSI (Satu Daerah Satu Industri) under MITI’s direct nego list of contracts but this event took place in Mac 2018, before GE14,” he wrote in the thread.

In a list of 101 direct negotiation deals purportedly approved during PH’s time, Tengku Zafrul said Miti that was under Warisan’s Datuk Darell Leiking and Ong received nine projects worth RM10.36 million.

The tweet caught the eye of Dr Afif Bahardin — the Pemuda Negara chief aligned with current Miti minister Datuk Seri Azmin Ali — who then asked about a company, Usaha Jana Sdn Bhd, purportedly belonging to an Umno Youth leader that received an APEC 2020 project worth RM49 million.

Ong then explained that the Apec project was won through an open tender that neither he nor Darell were a part of, before redirecting Dr Afif to the current Miti secretary-general Datuk Lokman Hakim Ali who was the head of the tender committee.

Dr Afif then replied that he found it odd that the said company was still able to bid and win a large tender from the ministry.

"So u (you) don’t find such a coincidence that this same company used to get direct awards from Miti and lepas tu menang pula (and then won) such a big tender for APEC

"But as we wanted to ask more, YB (Ong) said you did not now. YB said the minister also did not know. There are many things we did not know,” he replied

Ong then joked about a sex video allegedly implicating Azmin, to which Dr Afif retorted that the DAP man was acting like a stooge.

"Adui… (I) thought the former Miti deputy minister is above the level of Umno’s macai, but there’s no difference.

"That’s why he did not feel anything when a company close to Umno still got projects when he was leading MITI. The wavelength is the same. Rolling on the floor launching.

"Goodnite (goodnight) YB. We meet in Parliament tomorrow morning!” he replied.