The public is entitled to know the full facts about the allegations levelled against the Customs Department by Jasin parliamentarian Mohd Said Yusof.

In a press statement today, opposition leader Lim Kit Siang warned against any attempts to 'hush up' the episode.

"The public and Parliament are entitled to know the full facts, truth or otherwise. The genie is out of the bottle and it cannot be put back again without a full public and parliamentary accounting," he said.

"Let is not be said that the 'close one eye' syndrome has reached epidemic proportions undermining the national integrity system which Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had been vainly trying to promote in the past 32 months," he added.

Suitable forum

In view of this, Lim said he will propose to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity, which is meeting on Monday and Tuesday, to call Mohd Said and customs director-general Abdul Rahman Abdul Hamid.

He said the committee would be a suitable forum for the duo to give full disclosures about the allegations, including a full list of the confiscated luxury cars which had been sold, their respective prices and buyers since Abdul Rahman took over.

On Wednesday, Mohd Said alleged that top customs officers were involved in questionable practices involving the sale of confiscated luxury cars.

He claimed that the going rate for Mercedes Benz and BMW was RM40,000 in 'special deals' for friends, contacts at palaces and government departments to please the buyers for specific reasons or curry favour to get datuk titles.

In an immediate refutation, Abdul Rahman denied any abuse of power in carrying out the sale.

Disgruntled officers

Customs prevention division head Adnan Ariffin said a committee under the Finance Ministry decides on the sale of luxury cars seized, and not the department itself.

He also did not dismiss the possibility that disgruntled customs officers who were unhappy with the 'no-nonsense Rahman' were making use of Mohd Said to vent their frustrations.

"There are many out there who are unhappy with him (Rahman) simply because he does not tolerate hanky-panky. He does not play golf, never goes for karaoke but what he has been doing since he helmed the department about nine months ago is to conduct spot checks on officers," he told the New Straits Times.

Mohd Said ( right ) had a recent run in with the customs department when it was revealed that he had told its officers to ' close one eye ' to a seized shipment of illegal logs handled by his company.

When the news broke, Mohd Said remained defiant that he did not abuse his power and accused Customs of having an axe to grind with him.

He is currently being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) over the issue.

Following his latest allegations, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng had urged the MP to file an ACA report to show that he is not acting out of personal vengeance .