The hottest news in the Malaysian automotive circle this past few days has been the arrest of a high ranking DRB-Hicom Berhad executive on corruption charges. Why is this news heating up the automotive circle? Well, MACC has remanded a 53-year-old DRB-Hicom chief executive officer with the title ‘Datuk’ and a 45-year-old chief financial officer (CFO) on graft allegations. This CEO used to be heading a DRB-Hicom automotive division and he was then a well respected person among the automotive community.
DRB-Hicom, the company has confirmed that the MACC has remanded two top executives of its wholly-owned subsidiary DRB-Hicom Bhd Defence Technologies Sdn Bhd (Deftech), in connection with a graft probe on an RM17mil defence contract. (see press release below)
Both persons are suspected to have received bribes amounting to hundreds of thousands of Ringgit from several companies for the supply of equipment for the AV8 Gempita and ACV 300 Adnan armoured carrier vehicles between 2015 and 2017.
The arrests have seen DRB-Hicom shares falls 4.98% after the two execs were remanded.
AV8 Gempita Details :
The AV8 Gempita is the latest generation of 8×8 armoured vehicle personnel carrier for Malaysian armed forces. The Deftech AV8 is a new generation of Armoured Wheeled Vehicles with special emphasis on mobility, protection, payload and growth potential. Latest designs and technology from the commercial automotive industries which have been militarized to meet the performance and durability of modern military operational requirements.
In June 2011, the Turkish Company FNSS has signed a ‘letter of offer and acceptance’ by DRB-Hicom Defence Technologies (Deftech) for the design, development and manufacture of the vehicles. The AV8 vehicle selected by the Malaysian military is based on the FNSS-designed PARS 8×8 multi-purpose, multi-mission, wheeled armored vehicle. The contract includes technology transfer arrangements to Deftech and logistics support for the Malaysian army, positioning the vehicle and its 12 variants to become Malaysia’s first indigenous family of 8×8 armored wheeled vehicles.
