Corruption in the car industry

6 custom officers are being investigated for assisting car dealers to import vehicles using cloned or fake Approved Permits. Two are assistant directors while the other 4 are rank-and-file officers. These guys earn as much as RM5000 per car. Two Mercedes Benz E240s were seized from businessmen, and investigation proved that the APs used to import those cars were fake. I suppose this answers a question a commenter posed here on my blog a long long time ago, will innocent consumers who bought cars from dealers with dodgy practices be affected by a clamp-down? Yes, they will.

Corruption is not just evident in the luxury car import business. An ex-Proton colour and trim unit chief is currently under trial for accepting a RM90,000 bribe from Ara Borgstena Sdn Bhd to help obtain contracts to supply car seat fabrics for Proton cars. The case will be trialed on May 10.

Corruption seems to be everywhere, from the low-end national cars to the high-end luxury imports. Anything for a quick buck these days eh?

Sources: The Star, NST

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Paul Tan

After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

Comments

  • tariq (Member) on Apr 01, 2006 at 2:07 am

    it's everywhere…it somewhat has become a norm..i mean some people just aren't ashamed/afraid to succumb to this practice nowadays….that's how dirty the game has gotten here.

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  • Tracks (Member) on Apr 01, 2006 at 2:59 am

    The cases brought forward are mere public display that the government is doing something about it. It it just the tip of the iceberg. Corruption is everywhere and is also causing the car prices to be higher. This is especially so in the case of single source parts that are supplied to the OEM because they are no competition.

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  • aksMs (Member) on Apr 01, 2006 at 3:14 am

    This also prove the accusation by some of the commentors here that some Proton officers do make money for themselves. I wish more officers in Proton like that ex-Proton will be brought to justice and make it public.

    By the way, these things happens everyday, everywhere. From private sector to the government sector. A police officer once try to ask for 'duit kopi' just because the light on my rear plate no. is not working. Hell no. I don't condone to bribery. I pleaded. But he insisted 'indirectly'. Until a sergeant came to rescue and let me leave, without a ticket! Phew!

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  • Initial D (Member) on Apr 01, 2006 at 3:30 am

    corruption is everywhere……………duno when it will end……

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  • Isamu (Member) on Apr 01, 2006 at 4:08 am

    Ara Borgstena is a Proton subsidiary. Does it make any sense if you try to bribe someone from the parent company to get business?

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  • DAN (Member) on Apr 01, 2006 at 4:11 am

    just part of it , dont say there dont do a job, cos not enough to feeding all .

    so go n find more , any way beside u n u all r been corruption in government department ,cos there all dont no what there r doing just sack of job but dont no what there r doing.

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  • Paul Tan on Apr 01, 2006 at 5:00 am

    Isamu: It's only 6.67% shareholding.

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  • E-Nabill (Member) on Apr 01, 2006 at 6:41 am

    i tink car corruption is one of those tings that blind ppl can see as wel , its so open,and everybody knows it a robbery on TV if u like….uits so common that its 'part of the biz' , i hope the media pays attention to this case n make it front page stories only thn othrs wil be cought ..

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  • cratzelogy (Member) on Apr 02, 2006 at 2:11 am

    how i wish to point them out. hahhaha… but its very commandly use. Looking at it, i felt bad and ashame of it too. For example, u got a 2 supplier for car audio player. A provide normal audio CD player , B provide an audio CD player with mp3, wma, bluetooth and more. Which would that car company choose?

    My answer would be both, A for normal spec. car models and B for higher spec. models. But then mostly what happens is A would bride the PIC of the car company and then there u go. All car use A audio cd player. hahahah…

    Anyway i heard a W*** cost is just Rm20K~30k… so why we buy such a car so expensive from "DARE TO BE DIFFERENT, stay the same?" company? U figure the rest.

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  • ingolstadt (Member) on Apr 02, 2006 at 2:49 am

    Innocent consumers should reserve the rights to sue both the car dealers and the government.

    Car Dealer -Obvious case

    Government – The incompetency in enforcing their rules and regulations and ultimately leads to the frustration of consumers.

    Fxxk the government.

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  • triplesaber (Member) on Apr 02, 2006 at 6:59 am

    'Demonstrasi Aman' anyone? looks like we r being robbed for how many years already? Whats the year Saga was launched? hehe..

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  • fariq (Member) on Apr 03, 2006 at 3:25 am

    its sad that people when given an amount of power .end up abusing it for selfish needs. I am not sure if our country's future is positive, if things like this keep on going on ..

    On a more positive note…I know this is out of context…But I would like to congratulate Alex Yoong for his 1st A1GP race win in Shanghai.. and Moved Malaysia to 5th in the final points standing . Malaysia should be proud !!!!

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  • honda_driver (Member) on Apr 03, 2006 at 4:48 pm

    DRB HICOM pay up to RM150million a year for APs. All the aps are from 1 individual. Best business model you can imagine, selling APs you get for free.

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  • waimak (Member) on Apr 03, 2006 at 5:05 pm

    Corruption can be in any form, from the simplest twist of facts to leakages in procurement process. The sad thing is some are smart enough to hide it, while the not-so-smart suffer the legal action. This thing keep going on and on and over time the effects are channelled into quality of goods and services, productivity or even effect profitability. Corruption sometimes comes with biased policies and procedures and can be measured in monetary term.

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  • waimak (Member) on Apr 03, 2006 at 5:09 pm

    *hgkh* .. affect profitability… can't be measured..

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  • outspoken (Member) on Apr 03, 2006 at 7:45 pm

    stink to high heaven.. corruption are now "well practised" by most malaysians.. be it summons, tenders, and even APs. give BPR the freedom to act, and i am sure we will see a different malaysia..

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  • HatukNgkau (Member) on Apr 04, 2006 at 5:59 am

    BPR got freedom also malas to act lar…

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  • shaif (Member) on Apr 04, 2006 at 4:25 pm

    Where got freedom. BPR still need to listen to the 'paymaster'. There are not an independent party. Its all politics even in car industry.

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  • Joe Ooi (Member) on Apr 05, 2006 at 12:10 am

    Corruption, the biggest culprit in economic corruption in our car industry is NAP + tax-phobia structure! If we embrace open market, corruption can be eliminate to minimum. Good example are electrical appliances (TV, Fridge, rice cooker, fan, etc) and electronic (computer) is totally embrace open market, the consumer will benefit the most! Who in this market involve in corruption in order to acquire electrical and electronic items. If our electrical and electronic sector have similar "NAP", with few "national makers", then there will be a lot of corruption and the PC computer mostly price from RM 2K to RM 4K may jump to RM 8K to RM 10K in order to feed the crocodiles.

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  • nkhhenry (Member) on Apr 08, 2006 at 12:21 am

    take it EZlahh, anywhere round the world full of corruption happen daily…just whether these type of people really can spend that "corrupted money " n sleep peacefully??? how they r to teach their kids??? or like father like son n generation pass to generation…"Malaysia Boleh…Rasuah no.1" Sakit hati w this few foolish people…

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