KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 28): The Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found found seven concerns in relation to the 'flying car' project, which has involved an RM20 million investment from public-private partnership Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology into its developer Aerodyne Ventures Sdn Bhd (AVSB).
Chief among the concerns was that the project, which was initially promoted as a national effort, was in fact a private initiative and the RM20 million given to the company was used to develop the car, instead of the data processing centre it was originally earmarked for.
The concerns were:
- The announcement of the flying car was made too soon, without careful planning and informing the Cabinet.
- The project was a private initiative, despite it being promoted as a national project by the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development (MED).
- The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and MIGHT were not consulted directly in determining the direction of the air mobility development, especially for the “flying car project” in Malaysia.
- The Government has not yet done any due diligence on AVSB in terms of finance, intellectual property, expertise and capacity to develop a “flying car" despite MED promoting AVSB openly since February this year.
MIGHT through its subsidiary Venture Tech Sdn Bhd (VTSB) approved an RM20 million investment in AVSB, which was acknowledged by the Economic Affairs Ministry on Nov 1, 2019. This is in contrast to what MED ahd claimed earlier that the “flying car” project was a private initiative and did not use Government funding for the project.
PAC found that the prototype would be built in Japan as it has the ecosystem and facilities to build the flying car. However, MED minister Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Yusof said that AVSB would be utilised local technology to develop the project.
The PAC also takes note that there are no laws currently on the monitoring and the usage of flying cars in Malaysia.
In their report, the PAC also included some recommendations, such as carefully studying and planning for the project before announcing it to the public, and tabling of a complete Cabinet Paper to get approvals on matters involving the rakyat and national interest.
In addition, the committee also advised MED to coordinate and cooperate with other Ministries, agencies, and departments in implementing any Government programmes or projects before publicity was sought as well as to conduct due diligence before making any decision.
Apart from that, Parliament PAC said VTSB has to monitor in detail the spending by AVSB to ensure the investment of RM20 million made by VTSB fits the purpose that it was approved for.
Lastly the PAC also asked the National Audit Department to conduct an audit on the RM20 million investment to ensure the funds were used appropriately.
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