KUALA LUMPUR: A mere 50 drivers have surrendered their ‘lesen terbang’ or illegally-obtained driving licences to the Road Transport Department (RTD) as at Oct 8.
This was a minuscule number revealed by Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Kamarudin Jaffar during Question and Answer Session at the Dewan Rakyat today.
The ministry had previously revealed that 14,000 drivers’ licences were suspected of having been issued without abiding by proper procedures over the last two years.
In answering a question from Datuk Seri Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz (BN-Umno-Tanah Merah) today, Kamarudin said that half of the 50 drivers who surrendered the licences were non-Malaysians while the rest were Malaysians.
“As of Oct 8, 2018, around 50 holders of illegally-obtained licences or ‘lesen terbang’ have surrendered their physical licences to the authorities.
“Out of that, 25 were foreigners while the other 25 were Malaysian citizens,” he said.
On Oct 2, Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook was reported saying that many drivers were reluctant to hand over such licences despite calls by the authorities to do so by the Oct 13 deadline.
He had described the number as ‘below average and disappointing’.
Earlier on Sept 24, RTD director-general Datuk Seri Shaharuddin Khalid said that it had set up a special committee to study the mechanism behind the issuance of drivers’ licences.
The move followed on the heels of discovery of a syndicate suspected of having issued illegal driver’s licences.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had detained 12 RTD personnel in Perlis, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Sabah, and Sarawak in relation to probe into the matter.
Those detained had been suspended by the ministry pending completion of investigation.