PARLIAMENT The government is not awarding a contract to manage 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers coming to Malaysia to a company owned by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's brother.

Zahid confirmed that Real Time Networking Sdn Bhd did not get the contract in a written parliamentary reply to a query from Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang).

“The government has not appointed Real Time Networking to bring in 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers,” Zahid said in his capacity as home minister.

Instead, he said, Putrajaya was looking for a new mechanism to manage the foreign workers without the involvement of a middleman.

Previously it was reported that the Home Ministry was in talks with Synerflux Sdn Bhd over a management system.

Zahid, however, clarified that Synerflux was only shortlisted and had not been selected.

Malaysiakini had reported that Zahid's brother, Abdul Hakim, was bidding to provide a management system for 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers Malaysia plans to take in through a business-to-business system.

Abdul Hakim, however, denied it was government nepotism.