Why 14 Mercs are needed

Why 14 Mercs are needed

Wed, Jul 23, 2008 The New Straits Times

KUALA TERENGGANU, Malaysia:

The state government is prepared to produce detailed proof of the service cost and maintenance of the Proton Perdana V6 Executive cars that it had used as the state's official cars.

This is to justify the Terengganu government's purchase of 14 Mercedes Benz (E200 Kompressors) cars, worth RM3.43 million, to replace the Perdana cars for use by the state executive councillors and senior state government officers.

Defending its decision, the menteri besar's office, in a press statement said that the maintenance cost had been high since the Perdana cars were put into use four years ago.

The statement said the maintenance cost of just two of the cars since 2004 had come up to RM175,229 and RM132,357.

The statement also said the state government did not use its oil royalty to buy the cars and that the purchase was made in accordance with Paragraph 6 (II) of the Treasury circular 1 of 2008, which required the purchase of all locally made or assembled completely knocked down (CKD) cars

The state government also said that the menteri besar was still using an 18-year-old car from the previous state government and not a new car as reported in the newspapers.

The state government has received a lot of flak, including from Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak since the move.

The matter would be raised at today's Cabinet meeting.

On Monday, Najib said all senior ministry officials and state government executive councillors must use national cars instead of foreign models. This, he added was a long standing policy.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is also using the Perdana V6.