Armizan signing a plaque to officiate the new Papar Synthetic Running Track.
KOTA KINABALU (Dec 23): The Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) will ramp up its efforts to combat cartel practices, said Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali.
Armizan said this considering the increasing number of such cartels, and although he did not provide more details, he said MyCC had received many complaints and it is currently investigating several cases.
He cited the most recent case on December 22 this year, which saw five companies fined a total of RM415 million for forming a cartel to control the prices of chicken, making it MyCC’s biggest case since its establishment in 2011.
Armizan also cited a similar case on last December 19, which through an early court decision found the existence of a cartel that was involved in hanky-panky during an open tender process with the Ministry of Defence.
He said such cartels generally comprise four components – price fixing, sharing markets, rigging bids and controlling output – and their existence is a sabotage to the nation’s economy due to causing unreasonable price hikes.
Hence, he said MyCC will improve its monitoring and enforcement next year to catch the cartels through three focuses – agriculture sector, food sector and bid rigging – to ensure healthy competition and lessen the burden of the people.
“This is despite MyCC’s current lack of manpower. As of this moment, the commission only has 17 investigating officers nationwide.
“A RM10 million allocation was approved to enhance MyCC’s capacity but I think the Ministry of Finance (MoF) should pay more attention to this matter.
“This is because there will be more challenges for MyCC next year with the implementation of targeted subsidies and more open tender processes for projects,” he told reporters after officiating the Papar Synthetic Running Track near Papar here on Saturday.
Armizan explained that risks of cartels appearing is expected to be higher next year as targeted subsidies means the price of many goods will be floated, leaving room for price manipulation as the price of the floated goods will depend on the market.
He further explained that open tender processes for government projects could also invite more cartels as despite its boon in terms of procurement, the cartels can pull tricks during the process to gain an upper hand in being selected for certain projects.
“In this regard, I hope the public can assist us in this effort by channeling official complaints on suspected cartel activities,” he said.
Earlier, Armizan had officiated the Papar Synthetic Running Track which was completed within two months through an allocation of RM1.2 million and additional funding from the Federal Government.
The Papar Member of Parliament said the new running track can be utilised by the surrounding community, especially local athletes who previously had to go to the Beaufort and Penampang sports complexes to train.
He said although they are still waiting for the proposal for a Papar sports complex to be approved, the synthetic track can be used as an early alternative, and he hopes it can be fully utilised by the people of Papar.