Government picks Naza-Berjaya for fleet management job

Around 500 units of Proton X70 sports-utility vehicles were delivered to the government between December and January this year.

PETALING JAYA: The government is said to have picked the Naza-Berjaya consortium for the long-term contract to supply, maintain and manage its huge fleet of official cars and police patrol vehicles after nearly a year of competitive bidding process.

It is believed that the consortium had received the letter of intent from the Finance Ministry, with the actual award targeted by June this year. The current fleet management contract, awarded to Spanco Sdn Bhd in 1994, had expired in late 2018.

The company was given two extensions of six months each last year as the government evaluated new proposals from at least seven companies for the new concession.

It is believed that Spanco was given another six-month extension to June pending the award to the new concessionaire.

Sources said the Naza-Berjaya consortium has hired KUB Malaysia Bhd’s former boss Datuk Abdul Rahim Mohd Zin to lead the project and conclude the award negotiation with the government.

Rahim had left KUB in December “to pursue other interests, ” a recent filing with Bursa Malaysia showed.

According to his latest LinkedIn profile, Rahim had joined Berjaya Group Bhd in December as an executive director. Berjaya Group is the privately held holding company controlled by Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun.

In August, StarBiz reported that the Naza-Berjaya consortium was among the front runners to secure the fleet management concession in a tender process that attracted seven bidders including incumbent Spanco.

This was after the government, in February, called for a request for proposal for the contract to supply, maintain and manage its fleet of official cars for the next 15 years.

It was reported earlier that a new fleet management concession deal is in the works, with Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah quoted in November that a new concessionaire would be appointed at a cheaper price.

The government has a current fleet size of around 12,500 cars that include those used by ministers and top civil servants, as well as police patrol vehicles.

These vehicles, mostly Proton cars, are all leased from Spanco through a five-year replacement cycle arrangement.

“The new concession holder will only start supplying new cars to the government to replace out-of-lease Spanco vehicles once they have finalised the award, ” a source said.

Under the contract with Spanco, the end-to-end fleet management concession came with a five-year replacement cycle designed to ensure the government’s fleet stayed current, while at the same time the maintenance cost of each of these vehicles are capped at pre-determined limits.

This means that even after a new concessionaire is appointed, Spanco would still be required to maintain and manage the cars leased by the company that are still in service.

It is believed that Spanco had supplied around 2,000 cars to the government over the past 12 months as replacements for vehicles that have reached their maximum five-year limit.

This includes around 500 units of Proton X70 sports-utility vehicles that were delivered between December and January this year, now in use as official cars for the public sector’s super scale (Jusa) officers.

Spanco is an independent fleet management company with around 220 staff members and two flagship service centres in Batu Caves and Bangi. The company also has over 200 services centres nationwide, including Sabah and Sarawak.

Meanwhile, the Naza-Berjaya consortium has 20 brands of vehicles under its stable that includes Kia, Peugeot and Mazda.

Naza Corp chief strategy officer Azrul Reza Aziz told StarBiz in August that the Naza-Berjaya consortium has the competitive advantage in terms of technical capabilities, as the consortium offered an end-to-end solution from manufacturing, distribution and after-sales support to fleet management.

The consortium, he said, was able to extend competitive vehicle rental rates and help the government achieve cost efficiency through end-to-end offerings and benefit the government in terms of lower and manageable costs.