KUALA LUMPUR: Puspakom yesterday deployed additional officers nationwide to ensure smooth operations after 36 officers were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Agency for taking bribes.

Puspakom chief executive officer Datuk Salamat Wahit assured the public that it was business as usual at all its inspection centres as no queues had been reported in any of the states.

"Whichever inspection centre has a high traffic volume of vehicles, staff from other centres will be deployed to that centre. It is an open system which we have adopted for quite a while," he said.

"Some centres have more staff compared with others and the staff are rotated around based on the needs of the centres," Salamat said, adding that 2.8 million vehicles were inspected by Puspakom last year.

However, in Muar, Puspakom operations were temporarily suspended due to a technical glitch yesterday.
Salamat said operations resumed when the system was restored, after which more than 200 vehicles were inspected yesterday.

Lorries and other commercial vehicles from Segamat and Batu Pahat had lined up from 7am.

Many left the centre after several hours when they found out that only two officers were working.

Security guards stopped reporters from going into the Puspakom compound.

A lorry operator from Segamat, who wished to be known as Lim, said he reached the centre at 7am but had to return at noon as he could not wait any longer.

Vehicle owners were also made to wait longer than usual at the Puspakom centre in Mak Mandin, Butterworth. Some had to wait two to three hours.

Lorry driver M. Maniam said he had to wait almost two hours.

"This is very frustrating. I was unable to make a trip scheduled in the afternoon."

Pan Malaysia Lorry Owners' Association president Er Sui See praised the ACA for its fine job.

Er, however, had harsh words for the disruption of services at the Muar Puspakom centre, claiming that it could result in lorry and commercial vehicle operators being detained by police with expired Puspakom discs.

Er said he believed the disruption was linked to the bribery investigation.

He said the government should abolish the monopoly of Puspakom by appointing more companies to do the job so that lorry and commercial operators would not be held to "ransom".

He said Singapore had three companies doing the same job while in Thailand, it was run by the government under its Land Transport Authority and smaller vehicles could be inspected by more than 2,000 workshops.

Er also said equipment at Puspakom was obsolete and should be upgraded immediately.