JPJ officers facing graft charges still on duty, says department director

SEBERANG PERAI, Aug 7 — Penang Road Transport Department (RTD) director Mohamat Johari Mat Nor today confirmed that all 26 RTD officers facing graft charges were not suspended from their positions.

He said they will continue working as usual as there were no court orders or directives from the RTD headquarters to suspend said officers.

“Once there is a directive to suspend them from duty, we will suspend them. Till then, they will remain on active duty,” he told reporters after launching a new web-based bidding system for vehicle number plates in Penang.

Mohamat Johari said the general procedure for such cases was to suspend the officers once the department has received official letters from the court or the headquarters.

The 26 officers were charged with accepting bribes in a lorry protection racket over the past two months.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) hauled in over 70 RTD officers for questioning over the lorry protection racket early this year.

Following the bust, Mohamat Johari said the department has tweaked its Anti-Bribery Management System to prevent a recurrence.

He said the department now has daily roll calls for all enforcement officers to remind them about corruption-free practices and integrity.

When asked if RTD operations were affected due to the graft case, he said it was business as usual for the department.

“About 60 per cent of those arrested were field officers while the rest were in administration,” he said.

Mohamat Johari added that they have been getting assistance from RTD Perak and Kedah to smoothen operations at the state borders.

Meanwhile, at the launch of the web-based bidding system, Mohamat Johari said all bidding for Penang vehicle plates starting with “PPC” can now be conducted online.

“We received a total RM969,738 worth of bids for the PPC series with the highest bid at RM111,111 for PPC 1,” he said.

The other plate numbers that commanded high prices were PPC 3 and PPC 6 for RM45,000 each, PPC 8 for RM42,000 and PPC33 for RM25,000.

Under the e-bidding system, each person can bid for up to three number plates and they have a year to register the number plates.

Companies can submit bids for up to five number plates.

Penang is the fourth state to implement the e-bidding system after Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur and Kedah.

Those interested can place their bids on https://jpjebid.jpj.gov.my/ebid/ or through the JPJeBid mobile application.