JOHOR BARU, Feb 22 — Seven Johor Road Transport Department (JPJ) staff have been remanded for seven days starting today in connection with investigations into evading roadtax worth RM3.1 million involving more than 1,000 types of high-performance and luxury vehicles.

The Johor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) made the remand application against the suspects this morning under Section 18 of the MACC Act 2009.

Magistrate Nurmadiana Mamat issued the order where the suspects, aged between 27 to 42-years-old, will be remanded until February 28.

A source revealed to Malay Mail that the staff were said to have abused the JPJ’s MySikap system in issuing road tax for a host of high-performance and luxury cars in an operation that spanned six months in 2019. 

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“Initial investigations revealed that several third-party “runners” may have been involved in the issuance of the road tax stickers that showed a zero amount (RM00.00) on them, similar to government-issued vehicles,” said the source.

The source explained that the alleged misappropriation has resulted in no payment made to the department on a road tax that was supposed to have a high value.

“Investigators are also probing the ownership of the vehicles as some were said to belong to several high-profile individuals,” said the source.

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Yesterday, it was reported that the Johor MACC had detained seven-state RTD staff to assist the investigation into the misappropriation of vehicle roadtax fee, believed to be an internal abuse by staff by manipulating the department’s computer system.

The staff, consisting of counter personnel and administrative officers, were detained between 11am and 1pm yesterday at the Johor RTD office in Taman Daya here.

MACC said the total leakage from the Johor RTD road tax collection was said to have been at RM3.1 million in a period of six months from July to December 2019.

MACC Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Azam Baki confirmed the arrests.