Only seven bid for Perak government's Camrys - Star

May 4, 2009 By CHAN LI LEEN

IPOH: The auction of 16 Toyota Camry 2.4-litre cars previously used by state executive councillors of the previous Pakatan Rakyat state government received poor response from the public.

Only seven tender forms, including one from former exco member A. Sivanesan, were submitted to the state secretariat when the auction ended at noon Monday.

Principal assistant to state secretary (management services division) Shamshuzaman Sulaiman attributed the lack of response to newspaper reports that had wrongly reported the dates of the auction period.

“The auction period is from April 28 to May 4 and not as reported in the newspapers,” he said, adding that some newspapers reported May 4 and May 14 for the start of the auction.

Shamshuzaman said a total of 41 auction forms, priced at RM20 each, had been sold throughout the period.

“We will process the existing bids and decide later whether or not to hold another auction for the cars.

“Each form allowed bidding for 16 cars,” he said declining to reveal if there was a bid for all 16 cars in the seven tender forms that were submitted.

The cars, with the registration numbers AGS10, AFD11, AFD22, AFD33, AFD55, AFD66, AFD77, AFD88, AFD99, AFD333, AFD999, AFF33, AFF88, AFF99, AGS828 and AEU606, were all registered on Jan 9 and were being offered at a reserve price of RM148,000.

All the cars, except for AGS 10, which former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin had yet to return to the state and AFD 999 that was being used by State Assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar, were displayed at the state secretariat building car park.

“The results of the auction would probably be known on Wednesday after deputy state secretary Mohd Jamal Mohd Hussin returns from Langkawi,” said Shamshuzaman.

He said the forms would be handed over to a committee to be processed after being removed from its sealed box.

“The committee will then analyse the bidding prices on each form and submit a report to the decision-making committee headed by the deputy state secretary,” he added.

Noting that the cars were being auctioned off cheaply, Shamshuzaman said they had been worth RM167,000 at market value during the time of purchase while the tinting of the windows and windscreen had cost RM2,000.

“The registration numbers also cost a lot,” he said, adding that local distributor of Toyota vehicles, UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd was willing to buy back the cars at RM135,000 but the state deemed the offer as too low.