ANTHONY Loke has reminded MCA not to forget which transport minister had signed the lopsided Automated Enforcement System (AES) agreement before urging him to apologise over Putrajaya’s decision to void all outstanding AES summonses. 

The transport minister said the controversial agreement between the previous administration and two concessionaires was signed by former transport ministers from MCA.

He added that the AES was implemented in 2012 when Barisan Nasional was in power and the ministry was helmed by leaders from MCA, Kong Cho Ha and subsequently Liow Tiong Lai.

“MCA Youth wants me to apologise, I want to tell them that those who made the decision to sign the agreement were fools, not the ones who cancelled the agreement. 

“If Liow was serious, he wouldn’t have allowed the outstanding summonses issue to prolong. He was not serious and he did nothing. He never solved the issue,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya today. 

MCA Youth secretary-general Leong Kim Soon yesterday demanded Loke to issue an apology for allegedly making a “foolish” and “wrong” decision on the AES summonses.

He said the decision to write off all AES summonses was aimed at satisfying the public and to encourage motorists to break the law.

“I want to tell MCA leaders, please use your brain before you talk next time,”he said.

Loke said the government did not receive any money from AES summonses as it had been privatised to two companies, ATES Sdn Bhd dan Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd.

Loke said there were two tiers of payment to the two concession companies.

He said the first included a RM16 fee for each AES summons issued, even if the fine was never paid.

“In the second tier, for every summons collected, the government had to pay 50% to these companies,” he said

Loke said the BN government had paid a total of RM129 million to the two firms with this agreement.

“I am angry that such an agreement has been enforced. I can take criticism from those who don’t understand the agreement.

“But not from the MCA as they are the the biggest hypocrites,” he said.

Loke had announced last week that the government would cancel 3.1 million unpaid summonses issued under the privatised system, with a combined value of RM435 million in potential fines.

He also said the Road Transport Department would take over and operate AES and warned motorists that there will be no repeat of the write-off from September 1 onwards. – August 20, 2018.