From thestar.com.my,

Sunday July 27, 2008

RM80mil to maintain government cars

By EDDIE CHUA

KUALA LUMPUR: The Federal Government is paying RM80mil annually to Spanco Sdn Bhd to have the latter maintain its fleet of 1,400 Proton Perdana V6 Executives and other vehicles designated for official use.

This works out to about RM12,000 annually to maintain each of the locally-made luxury-line Proton Perdana leased from Spanco.

On Friday, Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said called on the ACA to probe the high service charges imposed by Spanco.

The Perdanas were part of a fleet of 5,600 vehicles of various models and makes that Spanco, a vehicle fleet management company contracted to lease and maintain vehicles for ministers, top civil servants and senior government officials, made available to the Government.

The contract was inked in 1994 for the duration of 25 years as part of the Government’s privatisation exercise. It expires in 2019.

In that contract, the Government paid Spanco RM100mil a year to lease and maintain its entire fleet.

But in June 2003, Spanco and the Government returned to the negotiating table when the Finance Ministry found the contract awarded to Spanco in 1994 excessive. The Government appointed an international audit firm to look into Spanco’s books.

Under the revised agreement, the audit firm recommended the Government cut back the contract by 20% to RM80mil annually. Spanco chief executive officer Datuk Hamzah Mohd Salleh said the issue of cost overrun and high maintenance charges did not arise at all under the Government-Spanco deal.

“Any overrun would be borne by us,” he said, but declined to reveal the details of the package.

“We only leased the vehicles to the Federal Government. We don’t do the state governments’ business.”

A source told The Star that the Government was Spanco’s only customer.

Under the deal, the Government gets new Proton Perdanas every fourth year.

and

Sunday July 27, 2008

Forgive and forget figure error on repairs, Idris urged

KUALA TERENGGANU: Former mentri besar Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh has been urged to “forgive and forget” the erroneous statement made about the high maintenance cost of his Proton Perdana V6 Executive.

Wan Ahmad Nizam Wan Abdul Hamid, political secretary to current Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said, said the amount was overlooked due to a miscalculation made at the state secretary office.

“There was no ill intention against Datuk Seri (Idris) or an attempt to tarnish his reputation,” he said yesterday.

“The mistake has been done and the matter should be put to rest.”

A statement issued to the media by the state government had stating that RM235,123.08 was paid to maintain the Proton Perdana V6 Executive used by Idris for four years starting from 2004.

Idris is undergoing a management course in Paris and is expected to return early next month.

His special assistant, Kamarulazman Idris, said on Friday that Idris was contemplating legal action against the state government for issuing wrong information to the media.

On the legal action, Wan Ahmad Nizam said he respected any decision made by Idris but hoped the issue could be settled amicably.

Terengganu State Secretary Datuk Mokthar Nong on Thursday apologised for the error made by a clerk in his office who miscalculated the total sum incurred. He said the actual amount spent to maintain Idris’ Proton Perdana between 2004 and this year was RM131,449.83.

He said the clerk was under pressure to finish the analysis on servicing costs for the state’s 16 Perdanas.

Do you see what is happening right in front of our eyes, other than the blatant corruption?

It’s INDIFFERENCE.

The government has this attitude that “This is not my money but every sen of it is for me to spend. And spend it all, I will”.

Who in the right mind would grant a 25 year contract to a company that has only ONE customer? It’s so obvious, that this company was set up to leech money from the people.

Walau eh 80 mil to maintain 1400 perdanas? 57,000 ringgit PER YEAR… PER CAR, JUST FOR REPAIRS? Fucking hell, what’s Puspakom for?  I’d say we have a stupid, stupid government. Or smart, but dunno how to cover up their dirty business. Hmm… therefore stupid, however you see it. And that’s only for their Perdana fleet hor… still got the other Pajeros and shitty cars hor… that all need maintaining hor.

Rather than using the money to maintain the Perdanas (which we don’t even know what is their definition of ‘maintain’?–maybe new in-car entertainment systems every fortnightly). They can fucking buy themselves Lamboghinis and CARPOOL.

Ubah Gaya Hidup Anda, konon.

Funny they should bring that up.

Once, somebody told me that people like me will not live long. And I was pissed to hear that, at that time. But this wasn’t a person to say things like that, even out of spite. So, it got me thinking. (and I’ve even blogged about it –can’t bother to find that particular post, sorry)

Anyway, I think I might have the answer already now.

My priorities. They are not what others might consider priorities. And I will end up pursuing pointless things. Chasing the wind. Chasing things that are of no interest or benefit, that no good might come out of them. But funny enough, I don’t do things that’ll provide no returns.

So, that’s why people like me die young.

So, people like you and me, educated and regarded in high-esteem… ahem… probably DON’T GIVE A FUCK if Anwar was stripped naked or hung upside-down or was fed only the tailbone of the salted fish with rice or just not fed.

Because WE are tired of his incessant yapping and his many thick-faced attempts to gain popularity.

Maybe Saiful Bukhari WAS doing a good thing for the country by trying to bring him down. But I felt that he could have been handed a better script, you know. Just a thought, just a thought.

Damn, Uniten fehmes.

… for not saving up?

You know, not everybody can be a millionaire by 30. So I guess we just have to save up. So that we won’t have to worry about those rainy days.

Read this and tell me you’re very inspired after:

Laxmi Das saved the money for her old age

When 60-year-old Laxmi Das recently deposited her earnings in an Indian bank in Calcutta, it was a bit more than the usual mundane money transfer.

Ms Das handed over 91kg (200lb) of coins – the produce of 44 years of hard begging – enabling her to open an account and qualify for a credit card.

Laxmi began begging near Hatibagan, a busy road junction in northern Calcutta, at the age of 16.

Officials say she could have saved as much as 30,000 rupees ($692).

“She would spend frugally from her daily collection and save the coins. She was very possessive about them,” says her sister Asha.

Ms Das saved the coins in iron buckets covered with jute bags at her home in a shanty town near the crossing.

In all, she collected four buckets-full of coins – of all denominations – some even minted as far back as 1961 and now clearly out of date.

“But we will accept those coins as well because she is poor and needs all our support,” said Central Bank of India spokesman Shantanu Neogy.

He says there is a directive from India’s Reserve Bank to accept all such outdated coins and reimburse the depositor in full.

‘Unique savings’

Ms Das told bank officials that she had stored the coins for when she reached “old age” and needed a pension plan for when she was too old to beg.

Old Indian coins fetch high prices in Bangladesh (Photo: Subhamoy Bhattacharjee)

She was encouraged to deposit the money by police who feared it could have been stolen from her home.

“It is not safe for her to have the coins in the shanty any more, now that people have come to know,” said police officer Baidyanath Saha. “A bank account would be the best option for her unique savings.”

Bank officials say they are still counting thousands of her coins and still do not know the exact amount.

They say that there are “a lot of coins to count”.

Once her account is eventually opened, officials at the Central Bank of India will give her advice on how to use her money.

Ms Das chose to ignore – or did not know about – a thriving racket in this part of the world in which old Indian coins are smuggled and melted down in Bangladesh to make razor blades that sell for up to seven times their value as coins.

The scam has caused an acute coin shortage in eastern India, forcing government mints to cut down on the amount of metal they now use to make the coins.