THE previous Pakatan Harapan administration never approved any decision to change the Cabinet team’s official cars from Proton Perdana 2.4 Premium to Toyota Vellfire 2.5L, said former Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.
“As per our cost-cutting measures back then, the Pakatan administration used Proton Perdana as opposed to our leaders now who use the luxurious Toyota Vellfire,” he said, in a statement.
In April, the Perikatan Nasional Government decided to change its fleet of official cars for its Cabinet from Proton Perdana to Toyota Vellfire, when the country was under the state of Emergency due to the COVID-19 crisis.
To quell public anger over the decision, the Finance Minister (MOF) issued a statement saying that the new lease would result in reduced payments.
It added that the monthly payment for a Toyota Vellfire 2.5L was RM4,851.61, compared to RM4,854.41 for a Proton Perdana 2.4 Premium.
“The decision to switch models was based partly on the lower monthly cost for the Toyota Vellfire 2.5 compared to that of the Proton Perdana 2.4 Premium.
“And the decision to change the fleet of official cars was made by the previous administration but was postponed and implemented this year,” MOF was reported saying.
On that note, Lim said that the lease cost for the Toyota Vellfire fleet did not make sense and the matter was confirmed by the Malaysian Car Rental Association president Farouk Fernandez in a media report recently.
The Bagan MP also queried the Government on whether the latter had considered other car models which could have been cheaper and akin to the comfort provided by Proton Perdana.
Who’s the new lease holder?
“Why didn’t the Government consider using a locally-manufactured vehicle? In the spirit of transparency, the MOF must tell us whether an open tender system was used to procure the cars.
“Plus, can the MOF divulge details on the company that will be handling the new lease of official Government cars?” he asked.
Yesterday, Malaysiakini reported Fernandez as saying that the lease costs of the new fleet of official cars made no sense as vehicles sold to the Government could save costs through duty and tax exemptions.
“I think the point for most Malaysians is that while the country is going through such hardship, and the Government’s fund is so depleted, why is there a need to change the (official) vehicles?” he was reported asking. – Nov 9, 2021.
