JPJ might review procedures to acquire driving licence

JOHOR BAHRU Sept 23 - The Road Transport Department (JPJ) might review the procedures to acquire driving licence if feedback from the public necessitates such a need, said its deputy director-general Abdul Wahid Selamat.

For the purpose, he said questionnaires would be issued to unlicensed motorists detained during the current operations "Ops Sedar II" which started on Sept 18.

"Through the questionnaires, the JPJ will be able to assess the effectiveness and suitability of existing procedures," he told reporters after leading the operation at the Skudai Toll Plaza, near here last night.

However, Wahid insisted that the JPJ procedures were among the easiest compared to other countries where driving licence applicants need only to attend 16 hours of theory and practical classes before undergoing test.

Since the launching of the operation to weed out holders of "flying licences", he said the JPJ enforcement officers had stopped 17,832 and issued summonses to 920 drivers including 281 for driving without or expired licences and 57 others without road tax.

In SEREMBAN, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and State JPJ had uncovered a case where a "flying licence" holder became a driver in a government department for almost 16 years without being detected.

The man recently surrendered his licence for Class "B2", "D" and "E" which he obtained in 1984 for RM600. Class "B2" is for motorcycles not exceeding 250cc, Class "D" for cars not exceeding dead weight of 300kg and "E" for cars not exceeding dead weight of 7500kg.

This was revealed at a news conference jointly held by state ACA director Akhbar Satar dan Pengarah JPJ Negeri Wan Zainal Abidin Wan Abdullah and his JPJ counterpart, Wan Zainal Abidin. They also released the names of "flying licence" holders in Seremban JPJ records to the press.

In another case, a 72-year-old settler paid RM2,280 to a "runner" for his driving licence in 1997. The settler is believed to be one of the "instant millionaires" after the government acquired the Felda Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) scheme, near Seremban for development.

Wan Zainal Abidin said many other "instant millionnaire" settlers were believed to have obtained their driving licences this way.

To-date Negeri Sembilan JPJ had received seven "flying licences" while the Negeri Sembilan ACA, 24 licences.

Akhbar said all the 31 licences were obtained from outside the state such as Taiping (Perak), Jengka (Pahang), Sungai Petani (Kedah) and Sibu (Sarawak).

He advised "flying licence" holders to surrender their licences on or before Sept 26 as the ACA officers would be coming to see those who failed to do so at home or office after the deadline.

Some government servants with such licences were committing an offence under Section 17 of the Anti-Corruption Act, he said.

In KANGAR, Perlis ACA has discovered that some "flying licence" holders have given false particulars to escape detection.

Its director, Jalil Jaafar said that out of some 20 addresses visited by the officers, three were found to belong to other people.

Speaking to reporters after witnessing an agreement to set up a joint preventive committee with the state JPJ in Jejawi, here, he said six drivers in the state had surrendered their licences.

On corrupted JPJ officers, he said that between 1995 and September this year, the ACA had received 25 tip-offs and made five arrests between 1997 and 1998.

Perlis JPJ director, Abdul Ghani Che Kassim meanwhile said the joint committee would comprise eight JPJ and ACA officers.

The JPJ had also set up a team of testers to conduct driving test for motorists who claimed that they were deliberately failed by their testers.