WWW 15: Open tender but free to Liow, loss revenue for JPJ
Keadilan is astonished by the most recent tweet of the Minister of Health Dato Seri Liow Tiong Lai that states the JPJ has officially informed him that the number plate WWW 15 is now given to him for free. With this most recent twist, this story has taken on a more serious political dimension. His tweet gives no satisfactory answer. If anything it raises a whole new set of questions about governance and in particular to the issues of ministerial powers and government open tender.
Wong Chen, Investment &Trade Chairman
Keadilan has researched the matter with JPJ and discovered that in order to place a bid as an individual, an applicant must fill up the JPJ form M.V.10, wherein the applicant must attach a copy of his IC and personally sign the document. In addition, the applicant must include a bank draft for half the value of the bid. The process is deliberate, personal, involving banking activity and therefore can only be done with the full knowledge and participation of the applicant. For Liow Tiong Lai to say that he had no hand in processing the bid (even though his signature is required in form M.V.10), and that he has no knowledge about who paid (even though a bank draft is required) is illogical and strange.
The public demands to know why JPJ would forego the revenue of RM24,200? How will JPJ explain to the other successful bidders of the WWW open tender, including the Sultan of Johor who had to pay in full? This latest development will make the public lose faith in the JPJ open tender system.
We note that JPJ is under the Ministry of Transport. Act 333 or the Road Transport Act empowers the Transport Minister with wide discretionary powers but does not give such powers to the Director General of JPJ. As such JPJ needs to explain to the public whether the instructions to forego the revenue came from within JPJ or came directly from the Ministry of Transport. We also note that Dato’ Seri Kong Cho Ha, the secretary general of MCA is the current Minister of Transport. We sincerely hope that this is not a case of one MCA Minister helping another.
The Prime Minister also needs to answer if all ministers are entitled to one special car number plate each, as alleged by Liow. If so, PM Najib must produce evidence of such a directive, otherwise the public can only think that MCA Ministers are loose cannons pronouncing directives as and when they like. Lastly, if there is indeed such an entitlement by cabinet directive, why then did Liow even bother to put in a bid of RM24,200 for the number plate?
