SHAH ALAM: Cendana Auto FFR in Lebanon. Back in January 2021, Malaysian Defence reported that Cendana Auto will be supplying 20 Fitted For Radio (FFR) 4X4 vehicles for the Joint Forces Command (JFC). The Cendana Auto vehicles are meant to replace the Land Rover FFR in service with the Malaysian peacekeeping mission in Lebanon – the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil).
The Land Rover FFRs have been in service with the Malaysian contingent in Lebanon since 2007 together with the Condors and other vehicles. Last April, the Eperolehan website issued a tender for the delivery of 20 Cendana Auto FFRs and 15 three-tonne trucks to the Malaysian contingent based in Beirut. Multimodal Freight Sdn Bhd was issued the RM2.2 million contract to ship the vehicles to Lebanon.
And courtesy of the hand-over ceremony of the Malaysian battalion (Malbatt 850) commanders – the ninth and the tenth – on November 12, we have visual proof of the Cendana Auto FFR vehicles in Lebanon. Only four FFR vehicles were seen though which were used as a backdrop for the parade of the ceremony. As usual the three tonne trucks were not seen though we likely to see them during the annual inspection parade.
What about the newly contracted Nurol Makina Ejder Yalcin then? I was told that the first vehicles contracted has passed their Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) recently. There is a still a chance that the vehicles will only be delivered to Malbat 850-11 though. As usual we took too long to decide even when the requirements call for a quick turnover. Another post on the Cendana Auto FFR.
— Malaysian Defence
“we took too long to decide”
Could it be that we wanted to get the UN’s approval to go ahead since they are paying for it and since the previous Guardian buy wasn’t fully reimbursed because they didn’t meet UNIFIL requirements, something which I assume the EY supposed to correct and the Government had to be sure the UN are happy with its config this time?
No, lah, UN do not get involved in the selection process. They will deduct payments based on the selected vehicle specifications after the decision. The delay was because as the ministry was going back and forth on the selection
So I don’t get why our AG said we didn’t get the full reimbursement from UN. If we bought A then they should reimburse for A but it was implied we didn’t get the full sum for A+ ?
So since we made the mistake of not getting A+ which we are doing now, are the UN going to fully reimburse the latest buys as well (20 EY) if they only require 20 units? Or are they going to say; “Nope you cannot claim full sum for these new buys, you made the mistake of earlier buying the wrong vehicle and we only need 20 so we will only top up the balance cost for those RWS that was supposed to be on the ori 20 vehicles”?
No they didn’t reimburse fully as the Guardians we bought didn’t meet their specifications
Please don’t spread more lies about the Guardians
– TD got them for FREE as a part of RM60 million trade-in for expired starburst missiles
– TD got full reimbursement from UN for service rendered of the Guardians as APC.
– Auditor General not satisfied, because if declared as IFV, not APC, the reimbursement will be 2 million more. To be rated as IFV, it needs RCW station.
– The guardian fully met TD & UN specifications, just not the Auditor General expectations to earn more money.
– The guardian, as is the Condor IS AN APC, AND UN REIMBURSED FULLY TO MALAYSIA SERVICES RATED AS APC.
– Our UN service in Lebanon is to help a fellow muslim country to find peace, not to make money.