Datasonic says no payment made to Ahmad Zahid

KUALA LUMPUR: Datasonic Group Bhd has refuted a news report alleging that it had issued payments to Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi over the supply of 12.5 million chips for the Malaysian passport.

At midday on Friday, its share price had tumbled 25.5 sen to 44 sen with 58.89 million shares.  This was the lowest in recent years.

However, Iris Corporation, rose three sen to 17.5 sen in heavy trade also. It used to supply passports to the government.

In a statement to Bursa Malaysia, Datasonic stated it had won the five-year contract to supply the chips to the government was based on lower pricing compared with the previous tender.

It refuted a news article entitled “Datasonic, MyEG implicated in charges against Zahid” which appeared on TheEdgeMarkets.com on Friday.

“Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd (DTSB) won a five-year contract to supply passport polycarbobate datapages and printing system based on per passport produce through open tender in April 2012. 

“DTSB was awarded for the supply of 12.5 million chips on Dec 15,  2015 based on value proposition of enhanced chips security (to put the chips bonded into the polycarbonate datapage instead of at the back of passport cover) and 15% lower pricing as compared to the previous vendor that provided a total saving of RM56.25mil to the government over a period of five years,” it said.