DAP has called o­n Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to direct the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) to investigate into the 25-year contract it signed with vehicle fleet management company Spanco Sdn Bhd,

Its national publicity secretary Ronnie Liu said the contract which provides a whopping RM400 million compensation should the government abruptly ends it must be investigated as a huge amount of fund was involved.

"The prime minister should immediately direct the ACA to investigate why such a ridiculous contract could have slipped through the Ministry of Finance under the administration of Daim Zainudin in 1994."

"RM400 million is no small amount by any standard. It could have been used for other charity projects and educational programmed beneficial to the people," he said in a statement today.

Expensive mistake

He added that Malaysian citizens should not be made to pay for "such an expensive mistake" made by Barisan Nasional top leaders.

On Tuesday, the Malay Mail reported that the government has to pay Spanco RM400 million if it terminated its contract before the deal expires in 2019.

It is learnt that the government had decided to terminate the contract after reviewing the audit done o­n how the privatisation of the vehicle fleet had benefitted them.

The government, which is Spanco's o­nly client, felt that it was paying too much to Spanco having spent almost RM100 million a year to lease and maintain some 4,500 vehicles used by ministers and top government officials.

It was reported in March this year that the government ordered an audit of the company in December last year and the audited report suggested that it could save about RM30 million annually through a review.

More expensive

In his statement, Liu said the government should not have signed such a "lopsided and scandalous agreement with the company in the first place.

"All it should have done was to buy and maintain the vehicles, instead of resorting to leasing which is much more expensive in the long run."

"The government has certainly abused its power by signing a 25-year privatisation contract for at least two reasons: the life span of any car used by ministers or top civil servants seldom exceeds 10 years and; no government should take for granted that it would continue to rule the country for the next 25 years," he said

According to previous press reports, Spanco is jointly owned by Men Jen (R) Osdman Mohd Zain, Tan Hua Choon, Tan Han Han Chuan, Tan Ching Ching and Abdul Rasip Haron.

The Tan family is the major stakeholder in the company which was incorporated in 1993.