KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 28 — Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang has called for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to look into all direct negotiation contracts in the past decade, covering the three Barisan Nasional (BN), Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Perikatan Nasional (PN) administrations.

The DAP veteran also challenged Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz to spearhead the call for the RCI in Cabinet.

"The time has come for a Royal Commission to be formed to investigate all the direct negotiation contracts in the past 10 years from 2010 to 2020 covering all three Barisan Nasional, Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan Nasional governments.

"Will Tengku Zafrul spearhead in Cabinet today the call for an RCI to investigate all direct negotiation contracts in the past 10 years covering all the BN, PH and PN governments and to ensure that such an announcement on the establishment of a RCI is publicly made by National Day on August 31?” questioned Lim.

He also mocked Tengku Zafrul’s efforts to play politics and casting aspersions against the previous PH administration by revealing the 101 direct contracts awarded totalling to RM6.61 billion, but had the exposé backfired against the greenhorn politician.

Lim described the senator’s move as a "ham-fisted strategy” which has returned to bite him and the PN administration where the latter had "scored his own goal” as the list became a "powerful testimony” that PH in its 22 months was better than the previous BN regime and the present "backdoor” PN coalition.

The Opposition lawmaker then asked Tengku Zafrul if he is ready to release the contracts awarded by direct negotiations in the past six months that PN has been in power.

"Is Tengku Zafrul prepared to release the list of contracts awarded by direct negotiations which he had approved in the past six months since the formation of the "backdoor” Perikatan Harapan government to show that there is nothing to hide?

"If he has no hesitation in releasing the list of contracts reached by direct negotiations by the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government, why is he so shy in releasing the list of contracts reached by direct negotiations under the Perikatan Nasional Government as well as the contracts where direct negotiations are taking place?” Lim said.