I refer to Bank Negara's proposal to restructure the country's motor cover policy which has attracted a lot of public outcry as many claim it may not be equitable to all parties.

The proposal is a result of the insurance industry pushing for a change in the motor insurance policy which it claims is losing money. Do you know why it is losing money? Simple. Corruption.

Nearly every road-user has been involved in some sort of accident. When we go to the bengkel or authorised workshop to get our car assessed for complete repairs, one figure is given. This figure is for those wanting to pay from their own pockets.

For some people, they decide to claim insurance instead of paying from their own pockets. So they let the workshop or bengkel do the necessary paperwork and as typical Malaysians, we just ‘want to sign only’ and just leave it to the workshop to do everything.

But for those who take the initiative to call the insurance company later (after all repairs have finished and the repaired car is delivered to you) to enquire about the charges, one gets a shock of their lives. The figure is totally different from the figure quoted during assessment.

I have been involved in accidents before and each and every time, I call up the insurance company to see how much the workshop or bengkel has claimed against my policy. I get a shock of my life. For example, one accident, when I assessed the damages with a workshop, the complete repair bill was RM4,000 with all original parts. But when the workshop made a claim to the insurance company, the claim was RM12,000!

There are a whole chain of crooks here. The Malaysian style is ‘all pakat ’. From the adjustor to the workshop, everybody works hand-in-hand to make an exorbitant claim to the insurance company.

Some say (I don't know how far this is true) that even the investigation officer is also involved in the whole chain. I do not want to speculate as I do not have any conclusive evidence but the obvious crooks involved here are the adjustors working with the insurance company. Obviously, some adjustors are getting some sort of kickback or ang pow .

This is not a secret. Every other motor driver has seen this happen to them.

Imagine, the claim is several times more than what was initially assessed. Now, let’s do some maths. Malaysia has at least 100 major accidents daily. If every claim is this distorted by the thousands, of course, the motor insurance industry is going to face huge losses. This figure can run into the millions of ringgit per month. If for one car alone there are exaggerated claims of several thousands of ringgit, calculate that figure by 100 accidents and see.

Ask any person who has been in an accident, they will tell you that these exaggerated claims are nothing new. As Malaysians, we just want our car back as soon as possible in order to get back to our daily routine. Most Malaysians don't care what happens behind the scenes ie, what was claimed against their insurance policy.

Bank Negara does not need to have meetings, discussions, analysis and all that mumbo-jumbo. The simple solution is just staring at them in their face. Sort out the corruption in the motor insurance industry and this, in turn, would sort the whole problem out. As a result, the motor premium holder would not be burdened with a scheme that is not equitable to all parties and have to fork out higher premiums.

Bank Negara does not have to waste time having countless of meetings with the industry. Identify and tackle corruption in the motor insurance industry and I can assure you the industry will immediately return to making a profit.

The insurance industry needs to clean up their act instead of burdening the rakyat . Clean up the corruption and false claims in your industry before crying to Bank Negara that your motor insurance industry is losing money and you want to burden the rakyat with heavier premiums or propose changes in policies that do not favour the premium-holder.