PUTRAJAYA: The Finance Ministry with approval of the Cabinet will decide on official vehicles for ministers and senior government officers.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail confirmed a portal report that the government was in the midst of appointing a company to supply vehicles for the official use of ministers and senior government officials.
The deal will see 32 units of Toyota Vellfire for ministers and 3,000 Honda Accords for the use of senior government officials.
This was following the end of a 25-year government concession with Spanco Sdn Bhd (Spanco) as of 2019, he said.
“The task of appointing a company is still the responsibility of the Finance Ministry, which will either see existing vehicles continuing to be used or they will be replaced with new vehicles.
“I do not know whether this was discussed in the cabinet meeting as I did not attend the last two meetings,” he said today.
Saifuddin said based on the previous government’s policy, senior government officials were either given vehicle allowance or they received an official vehicle.
“We have previously discussed which measure would save the government more money, whether a vehicle allowance or providing an official vehicle. This will be decided by the Finance Ministry,” he said.
Currently, ministers and senior government officials were using Proton Perdana and Toyota Camry respectively.
In addition to the Toyota Vellfire and Honda Accord, the government was also reportedly planning to utilise 8,000 units of Proton Persona and Porton Saga.
It was reported that the new fleet management contract will cost RM300 million annually involving 12,500 vehicles for 15 years.
Last February, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng confirmed that Spanco's contract had not been extended, allowing open tenders from other companies for the deal.
It was made to understand that among the companies bidding for the new contract was Spanco, the Naza group, Berjaya, Sime Darby, DRB-Hicom, the Samling group, Comos and Go Auto the distributor of Haval.