An opposition MP wants RM10 docked from the salary of Transport Minister Kong Cho for his “stubbornness” in wanting to go ahead with the much-criticised Automated Enforcement System (AES) for traffic offences.

“This is because of his stubbornness and refusal to listen to complaints about the AES system,” PAS’ Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar told a press conference in the Parliament lobby today.

azlan He said that he would submit the motion to the speaker’s office later today.

Mahfuz, who spearheads the PAS-linked anti-postal traffic summons coalition (Kase), referred to  Kong’s insistence yesterday that the traffic enforcement system would go on as planned despite objections from opposition MPs and backbenchers alike.

Mahfuz and his Pakatan colleagues have mounted a campaign protesting against the AES, which they claimed appeared to be more of a gravy train for government cronies than any system to reduce traffic accidents.

A number of BN backbenchers, who are likewise dubious about the system, are supporting their cause.

AES cost marked up?

Kase legal adviser Zulhilmi Shariff raised the cost of the automated traffic enforcement system, citing a Transport Ministry statement that the total investment sunk into the systems in by the implementors, Ates Sdn Bhd and Beta Tegap Sdn Bhd, was RM717 million.

Zulhilmi said disclosures to regulators by companies that supplied the AES cameras to the two concessionaires revealed a far lower cost than the amount stated.

He then showed members of the media a printout of disclosures from German company Jenoptik Robot citing a contract worth RM160 million to supply 550 cameras to Ates.

Zulhilmi also showed another document from Aussie firm Red Flag Systems to Australian regulators on the supply of 450 fixed and 140 mobile cameras costing RM151 million to Beta Tegap.

Both these contracts, he said, were worth only RM311 million, which was far less than the figure of RM717 million given in the parliamentary answer.

Zulhilmi believes the additional RM416 million was a "mark-up" by the concessionaires for their own profit.

VIDEO l 4.27 mins

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