Alleged questionable practices in the auctioning of confiscated luxury cars by the Royal Customs and Excise Department took centre stage at the Parliament House today when its director-general, Abdul Rahman Abdul Hamid, appeared before a 12-man Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity to explain the allegations.

The four-hour meeting was held following a complaint by the Jasin Member of Parliament Mohd Said Yusof late last month that the 'going rate' for Mercedes Benzes and BMWs seized by the department was RM40,000 per vehicle.

He claimed that these were 'special deals' for friends and contacts at palaces and government departments in order to please the buyers for specific reasons or to curry favour to get 'Datuk' titles.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, committee chairman, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Bernard Dompok, said that the meeting revealed that the department had a certain amount of discretionary powers in deciding who got to buy the cars.

"The Customs Department has got the powers to decide who will get the cars. They have the discretion and this is being contested now. But I think they have realised this problem and this is why a committee chaired by the Treasury was set up.

"Certainly, the amount of the discretionary powers involves some issues of integrity which we need to discuss further," said Dompok. Abdul Rahman, who took over as Customs DG last October, refused to make any comments after the meeting.

Four categories

Elaborating, Dompok said that while the Customs DG was empowered to have the final say, the Treasury committee, headed by its secretary-general, was set up in February this year to prevent any discrepancies.

"He (Abdul Rahman) has since formed another committee to undertake the disposal (of the vehicles). According to the department, they are very hopeful of the committee and believe that once it is institutionalised, there will not be any further cases of such nature," said Dompok.

He said that as such, Mohd Said's complaint that he could not get his preferred car at the Customs godown was due to the discretion exercised by the department. The decision in Mohd Said's case was not made by the current DG, he added.

The minister said the select committee was informed that disposal of confiscated vehicles by the department was done via four methods - open tenders, selling off as scrap, donating to institutions of higher learning and by selling them off to the public.

Those who entitled to get the cars under the fourth category include senior civil servants that are nearing retirement, members of parliament and state assembly representatives. The reserved prices of the cars are fixed by the Public Works Department after evaluation.

"The fourth category is the bone of contention with the Jasin MP as he had approval to purchase a vehicle on July 21 last year. He contended that he was not given the vehicle he wanted because the Customs Department wanted to give it to someone else," said Dompok.

When asked whether he was satisfied with the department's explanation today, the minister instead asked reporters: "Are you (satisfied)?"

He then said findings gathered at tody's meeting would be incorporated in an interim report by the select committee to Parliament due at the end of this year.

Jasin MP may testify

Dompok said the Jasin MP has indicated his willingness to appear before the committee and the committee was ready to hear him out though no date has been fixed as yet. "If they call me, then I will go," Mohd Said told reporters when met later at the Parliament's lobby.

In an immediate response to the Jasin MP's allegations two weeks ago, Abdul Rahman had denied any abuse of power while the department's prevention division head Adnan Ariffin said a Finance Ministry committee decided on the sale of luxury cars seized and not the Customs Department itself.

However, it was later revealed that the Jasin MP was one of the 'lucky MPs' who received a letter from the Customs headquarters about two years ago allowing him to buy seized luxury vehicles.

Mohd Said later then said that he did not buy any confiscated car from the department as the car he chose, a Mercedes Benz, had been reserved for someone else.

The Jasin MP had, in recent months, been in the limelight when it was reported that he had asked the Customs Department to 'close one eye' to a seized shipment of illegal timber handled by his company.

When the news of this broke, the MP accused the department of having an axe to grind with him. This, in turn, has led certain quarters to wonder if his latest allegation on the luxury cars episode is to get even.