No new cars for Penang excos

PENANG: The Penang government has cancelled an order for five new Perdana V-6 cars worth RM623,000 which were ordered by the previous administration for its exco members. 

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng commended all the new exco members for agreeing to continue using the existing cars to save the rakyat's money. 

"The ordered cars had not been delivered yet. So, we have managed to cancel the order without incurring any losses for the state. 

"Currently, the government has 43 official cars for its senior officers," he told newsmen Wednesday after a state exco meeting. Lim also said the state government was proposing a subway system to help improve the state's public transportation. 

However, he said, it would cost three or four times more than the federal government's elevated monorail project. 

"If we have a subway instead, it will also help improve the drainage system to solve flood woes. This way, we can kill two birds with one stone," he said.  

Although the state was keen to replace the monorail project with the subway plan, the decision was ultimately up to the federal government as the financier, he said.  

Lim said he had written to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad to seek an official appointment with him. 

The subway proposal would be among the matters he hoped to raise during the meeting, he said. 

He would also appeal to Abdullah to restore some funding under the Ninth Malaysia Plan for the state which was reduced "substantially" during the previous state government's administration.  

On the land improprieties issue, he said the Anti-Corruption Agency would brief him on its completed investigation on Friday.

--THE STAR