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.