Partnerships with govt must be done properly: Loke

PUCHONG: The Transport Ministry will not reject any strategic partnerships with private companies to provide services for agencies under the ministry.

However, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said such partnerships need to be done properly and required official approval.

He said the ministry did not want any company to announce and carry out any services for government departments without the knowledge of the ministry itself.

“They should officially apply and present their plans. If they manage to convince us, there’s no problem, but they need to follow the proper process,” he said at a media conference after officiating the groundbreaking and signing of the agreement to develop Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Castlefield on Wednesday.

Loke said the ministry is open to BJAK becoming a strategic partner to the Road Transport Department (RTD), but the insurance platform must officially apply to become RTD’s strategic partner.

In a statement, the RTD announced that neither the ministry nor the department had given any approval to an online insurance renewal platform BJAK Sdn Bhd to conduct road tax renewal transaction services.

The department also said it had received complaints from the public that while their road tax renewals have been processed through the BJAK website, the validity period of their road tax was not updated.

There were also complaints from the public on extra fees charged by BJAK for road tax renewals.

Subsequently, BJAK acknowledged the issues brought forward by RTD and said the road tax renewal was an optional service for its customers, with its primary service being auto insurance comparison and renewal.

BJAK said its road tax renewal service was offered to customers free of charge as part of an initiative to make renewals more convenient and cost-effective.