KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Group founder Tan Sri Vincent Tan has filed a suit against government and Spanco Sdn Bhd over a multi-million ringgit vehicle fleet concession.
Tan claimed that the group, in a consortium with Naza Group, had been picked to manage the fleet concession by the previous administration through a Letter of Intent (LoI) issued in 2018.
Berjaya formed a 49:51 consortium with Naza in 2018 to jointly bid for the lucrative contract, which reportedly involved around 12,500 vehicles worth an estimated RM300 million annually starting after the fifth year.
Tan said the consortium had received the LoI from the Finance Ministry to replace the fleet management provider Spanco Sdn Bhd.
He claimed that the LoI was terminated unfairly before the actual award was set to be announced.
"We have filed a lawsuit against the ministry on this, and we are waiting to go to court this year. You will hear more of this down the road," he said at a press conference on the sale of Berjaya group's waste management business to Naza Group for RM700 million here today.
In February 2018, the government called for proposals for the contract to supply, maintain and manage its fleet of official vehicles for the next 15 years.
Proposals were reportedly received from at least seven companies.
Aside from the Naza-Berjaya consortioum, other bidders were Sime Darby Bhd, DRB-HICOM Bhd, Samling Group, Comos, Go Auto and Spanco, which had managed the concession since 1994.
According to Tan, the Naza-Berjaya consortium had won the bidding with the lowest offer.
"We won the contract as the lowest bidder and got the LoI. But then the government changed and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin became the prime minister. Three months after that, we got a notice that our LoI has been terminated.
"(The government) terminated our LoI and gave the tender to Spanco Sdn Bhd. Our tender was RM700 million cheaper than Spanco," he remarked.
Tan questioned why the government had agreed to pay RM700 million more to Spanco.
"Maybe the new government thinks that Berjaya and Naza are not good enough in the car maintenance business or the car business," he suggested.
He said the consortium had changed its shareholder agreement, raising the Bumiputera stake in it to 60 per cent.
"Berjaya's stake is now down to 40 per cent. Hopefully we will get favourable results from a court decision," he added.