THE cabinet will decide which company gets to supply vehicles for the official use of ministers and senior government officials, said Lim Guan Eng.

The Finance Minister said although such matters fall under the purview of his ministry, the cabinet would still have to approve the deal.

The deal will see 32 units of Toyota Vellfire for ministers and 3,000 Honda Accords for the use of senior government officials. 

This new deal is as a result of the end of a 25-year government concession with Spanco Sdn Bhd (Spanco), as of 2019. 

“Wait for the cabinet decision. It is under the purview of the ministry but we are guided by the cabinet decision,” he said after visiting the Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah Bridge in Penang today. 

He said the matter will be decided at the next cabinet meeting.

Yesterday, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the task of appointing a company was 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 had said.

Saifuddin also said that based on the previous government’s policy, senior government officials were either given vehicle allowance or they received an official vehicle.

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, Lim confirmed that Spanco’s contract had not been extended, allowing open tenders from other companies for the deal.

It is understood 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. – January 1, 2020.