With Ops Warta IV ending today, cabinet ministers still record a total of 101 unpaid traffic summonses totalling RM10,790.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak himself, who himself ordered his fellow cabinet members to settle their fines last month, is one of the ministers who still has unpaid traffic summonses.

Standing out from the 'black list' is Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, whose summonses record remains unchanged with not even one being paid since the matter was highlighted by the press on June 9.

Apart from Najib and Tengku Adnan who have 14 and 17 unpaid summonses respectively, the other seven cabinet members who have yet to pay up are:

  • Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Dr Rais Yatim, who has 24 unpaid summonses;

  • Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin (18 summonses);

  • Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal (17 summonses);

  • Education Minister Hishamuddin Tun Hussein (five summonses);
  • Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek (three summonses);

  • Plantation Enterprises and Commodities Minister Peter Chin Fah Kui (two summonses); and

  • Youth and Sports Minister Azalina Othman (one left).

    • The nine ministers still owe the government a total of RM10,790. All the unpaid summonses were issued to vehicles registered under the ministers' previous (old) national identity card numbers.

    PM first to settle

    Najib still owes the government RM1,650 for the 14 unpaid summonses, the first being issued on Jan 14, 2001 with the latest on Dec 13, 2004.

    The figures for the outstanding fines, nevertheless, is a dramatic drop of 90 percent from the initial RM124, 850 in 999 unpaid summonses issued to 23 ministers, some stretching as far back as 1999.

    The unpaid summonses reduced gradually by a third on July 20, a week after it was highlighted.

    Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdullah Mohd Zin is the only minister out of the 32 in cabinet who has a clean record in not having been issued summonses. The record of summonses for six other ministers could not be traced.

    Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was the first to settle his 11 unpaid traffic summonses in June soon after the matter was exposed.

    Drivers advised

    Deputy Transport Minister Tengku Azlan Sultan Abu Bakar had told a Dewan Rakyat sitting on July 17 that those in the federal cabinet had "given memos to all their drivers not to drive fast". He said this when answering a question by an opposition member.

    Tengku Azlan's boss, Chan Kong Choy on July 13 said that ministers were to advise drivers to abide by traffic rules and regulations, on the assumption that ministers were not behind the wheel.

    Chan said that ministers had unanimously decided to pay up their summonses during a cabinet meeting the day before, but did not state a deadline when the summonses are to be settled.

    Police have said they are willing to go door-to-door to clear the more than RM2.82 billion in uncollected traffic fines for summonses issued between 2001 and 2004 involving some 9.4 million drivers.

    The information on the unpaid summonses wwas obtained from Rangkaian Elektronik Interaktif Kerajaan's website .