Only In Malaysia Will Buying A Car With 55% Discount,Be Worthy Of Being Probed By MACC

Only In Malaysia Will Buying A Car With A 55% Discount And Saving Public Monies Be Worthy Of Being Probed By The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) But Not When Buying Above Market Price And Wasting Public Funds.

I welcome any proposed investigation by the MACC as reported by news portal  Fz.com on the Penang state government’s purchase of a Mercedes-Benz S300L for my official usage. Whether MACC will eventually investigate or not, full co-operation will be given to the MACC as the state government is clean and I have nothing to hide.

I will not be asking MACC why no investigation was conducted on BN governments who made similar purchases without the 55% discount. I am certain that MACC will find that the Penang state government is “as clean as a whistle” as the whole transaction of purchasing the Mercedes Benz was handled by the State Financial Officer Dato Mokhtar Mohd Jait, who had abided by proper and legal procedures with valid documentation.

I had criticised the purchase of 14 Mercedes E200 at RM 245,000 each purchased by the Terengganu state government in 2008 for RM 3.43 million because they were not ‘value for money”. They did not get a 55% discount for the 14 Mercedes, unlike the 55% discount obtained by the Penang state government when purchasing one Mercedes Benz.

Only in Malaysia will buying a car with a 55% discount and saving public monies be worthy of being probed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) but it is not worthy of MACC’s investigation when buying at higher than market price and wasting public funds. The state government had bought the Mercedes Benz S300L for RM298,263.75, a 55% or RM358,954.25 discount and tax exemption from the original price of RM657,218.00.

I will not be surprised that MACC is probing the state government for saving money amounting to RM 358,954.25 but letting off those who buy at marked-up prices as exposed in the annual Auditor-General Reports. The latest 2012 Auditor-General Report exposed malpractices involving RM6.5 billion which include wastage of public monies such as:-

·        RM1.3 million worth of equipment by the police force that went missing, including 156 handcuffs, 44 weapons and 29 vehicles were missing.

·        the Department of Broadcasting’s purchase of 20 wall clocks at RM3,810 each, 38 times more than the estimated RM 100 each, and three A4 size scanners at RM14,670 a unit, more than 70 times the estimated price of RM200 each;

·        the Customs Department’s having to destroy RM600,000 worth of shoes it had purchased because they did not suit its officers;

·        the Melaka state government’s illegal building of its Customs and Immigration Quarantine Complex on private land, which eventually cost it an extra RM10.8 million to compensate the landowner, plus an extra RM40 million in building costs that had shot up because of the delay;

·        Ministry of Youth spending RM3 million excessively and imprudently for the National Youth Day celebrations, including RM1.6million to bring in K-Pop groups from Korea.

·        RM1.3 billion in additional costs over the USD 2.3 billon Bakun Dam project and paying RMUS$133 million (RM430 million) in compensation to two foreign contractors for losses incurred which suffered delays of up to four years in civil engineering works.

No action is taken by MACC for such wastage of public funds that involves a BN government but a different approach is taken when public monies are saved by a PR government. This is really Malaysia Boleh!