Rep honks at official cars rolling out of Pekan

DAP has queried the government's decision to replace its fleet of official vehicles with cars that are assembled in the prime minister's parliamentary constituency.

Kampung Tunku state assemblyperson Lau Weng San said the replacement vehicles, Honda Accords, are assembled in Pekan where premier Najib Abdul Razak is the MP. 

"Why is the government using Honda Accord 2.4L and 2.0L and not any other vehicles? 

"Is it because both Honda models are assembled by DRB-Hicom in Pekan. The company is owned by Syed Mokthar Al-Bukhary?" he added in a statement today.

Lau (left) called on the government to reveal the rationale and cost of choosing these vehicles as well as whether they were chosen based on open tender.

This, he said, is to avoid a repeat of a previous one-sided deals where the government had to fork out RM100 million a year to a company for the maintenance of the the Proton Perdana Executive fleet which are the official cars that are being replaced.

"How much must the federal government fork out every year and how long is the rental contract?" he said.

The federal government had announced that the present Proton Perdana Executive used by  the members of the administration, Parliament speaker and deputy speaker, judges and  Special Grade A public servants and above, would be replaced with the Honda Accord 2.4L.

Meanwhile, the Proton Inspira used by Special Grade B and C officials will be replaced with the Honda Accord 2.0L.

Lau criticised the federal government for being hypocritical when it hit out at the Pakatan Rakyat-led Selangor state government for being "unpatriotic" when it replaced its fleet of Proton Perdana which often broke down with Toyota Camry.

"Now the federal government is doing the same. More surprisingly, why is there a need to replace the Proton Inspira fleet which is still new with the Honda Accord 2.0L?" he said.