June 05, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong
Lai said today that he is not sure who paid the RM24,200 for the WWW 15
vehicle registration number he won in a recent tender as controversy
mounted over why he made the bid for his official car.
Questioned today by reporters over who made the payment, the MCA
deputy president confirmed that the Ministry of Health did not pay for
the number.
But when further pressed for answers, Liow (picture) hesitated before saying “not sure, I have to check”.
MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, who was also present at the
press conference at the MCA headquarters, attempted to help Liow by
saying that the money went “from the left hand to the right hand”.
But Dr Chua also did not say who paid the money.
“When I applied for it, I didn’t know the cost,” Liow said.
He defended himself by saying that “the process (of bidding) was
handled by JPJ (Road Transport Department)” and repeated that the bid
was placed because of the change in his official car.
He said that “all ministers are eligible for one number, I didn’t exercise the option earlier.”
He said “numbers to me are not important, what is more important is service to the people.”
On May 28, it was announced that the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim
Ismail Sultan Iskandar, beat close to 10,000 bidders to win the tender
for the vehicle registration number WWW 1, with the highest bid of
RM520,000.
It was also revealed then that Liow had won the bid for the WWW 15 registration number.
Thousands of people had thronged the three Kuala Lumpur RTD branches to place their bids for the WWW prefix.
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