KUALA LUMPUR (July 1): Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has experienced cartel practices among some of its contractors, the airport operator’s managing director Datuk Mohd Izani Ghani said in a report released by a parliamentary committee.
According to the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) report, Mohd Izani noted the existence of cartels that made it difficult for work to be carried out at its airports.
“In some cases, they have cartels, the contractors.
“They scared people from entering the airport. It was difficult to do any work. All sorts of things happened that were improper,” he told the committee at a proceeding dated Aug 20, 2025.
He noted that MAHB has conducted a procurement vendor programme to open a dialogue on how the airport operator and the contractors can better serve one another.
However, no specific examples of cartel practices were disclosed in the report.
Mohd Izani shared that after he joined MAHB as MD in August 2024, the company has been undergoing a procurement transformation initiative.
MAHB is reviewing its list of contractors to ensure that it has quality contractors registered with the airport operator, he explained. “This is so that when we call for bids, we know we have good contractors competing for our projects,” he noted.
During the same proceeding, PAC vice chairperson Teresa Kok suggested to Mohd Izani for MAHB to work with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to look into the contractor cartel issue.
One of the PAC’s recommendations in its report on management of public airports under the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport, and MAHB was for the airport operator to further tighten its procurement screening cooperation with the MACC, Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) and the Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC).
The recommendation is to eliminate cartel practices among “incompetent contractors”, the committee said, thereby ensuring basic service quality issues — such as toilets, roof leaks, and aerobridge damage — do not recur.
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