PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) will go all out to nab syndicates involved in cloning luxury cars from across the Causeway.
“We will go after those involved, irrespective of their rank or status,” MACC deputy chief commissioner Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said at its headquarters here yesterday.
Mustafar, who is in charge of graft prevention, said of the 21 suspects arrested so far, eight were Road Transport Department (JPJ) officers.
On further efforts to eliminate inside jobs related to falsification of road tax discs and car registration documents, he said MACC was working closely with JPJ’s special 25-member squad assigned to the task.
“There will always be some bad apples. What’s important is not only to weed them out but also to instil integrity among the officers to prevent further corruption,” he added.
Mustafar said the matter was brought up for discussion with Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low during a meeting on Jan 7.
Among the measures, he said, was the implementation of the Vehicle Entry Permit system this July.
“All vehicles entering or exiting the country will have details of the vehicles and owners in the system. This will let the authorities keep a record of the vehicles,” he said.
He said MACC also recommended that the penalty for replacing lost road tax discs be increased from the present RM150 fee.
Meanwhile, the Selangor Road Transport Department (JPJ) has revved up its crackdown on cloned cars in the state, with 26 such vehicles detected barely a month into the new year.
State JPJ director Nazli Md Taib said cloned cars were becoming a serious problem.
“In the first 19 days of this year, there were already so many found. I believe there are many more out there,” he told a press conference at the Selangor JPJ headquarters yesterday.
Nazli said a special team had been set up to detect cloned vehicles by checking their physical condition.
The most popular clones, he noted, were Honda and Toyota models, with some Toyota Vios cars going for as low as RM4,000.
“JPJ is working closely with police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in this operation,” he added.
