Plea to end red tape

Nawaz showing the serious water ponding issue in one of the PPR Seri Aman units. Overlapping responsibilities among different government bodies has led to residents having to wait a long time to get their leaking units fixed. — Filepic

WHEN KC Lim from Taman Sentosa lodged a complaint with Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) about rubbish being dumped in front of her house, she was told that she had contacted the wrong agency.

“When I called the DBKL Seputeh branch office, they told me that waste management and illegal dumping falls under the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp).

“When I called SWCorp, they told me that they would check with their waste contractor, Alam Flora Sdn Bhd.

“I haven’t heard from anyone since then but as I pay my assessment tax to DBKL, I feel that they should solve my rubbish problem,” she added.

SWCorp is an agency under the Local Government Development Ministry, previously known as the Housing and Local Government Ministry.

SWCorp has appointed waste management concessionaire Alam Flora to collect and dispose of waste in Kuala Lumpur.

Apart from rubbish collection, Alam Flora is also responsible for cleaning drains in the city as provided for under the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 (Act 672), which was gazetted on Aug 30, 2007 and enforced on Sept 1, 2011.

StarMetro reported on May 22, 2021, that DBKL spent about RM260mil yearly on waste management in the city. When contacted, community activist Yee Poh Ping said people should be able to deal directly with DBKL as was the case before waste management was privatised.

“If Alam Flora is facing obstruction issues when carrying out work, they have to lodge a report to SWCorp and SWCorp has to prepare a report to DBKL.

“It is a tedious affair which can be time consuming,” he said.

According to Yee, residents say many of their complaints have gone unresolved due to red tape.

He opined that agencies like SWCorp were unnecessary, noting that Kuala Lumpur’s development was hampered by numerous agencies with overlapping functions.

Solid waste management services were privatised in 1997 and Kuala Lumpur was the first city to start it with DBKL paying Hicom Holdings Bhd to manage waste in the city.

The former housing and local government ministry (KPKT) took over the management of waste soon after that.

Overlapping responsibilities among different government bodies has also led to PPR Sri Aman residents in Jinjang Utara having to wait for a long time to get their leaking units fixed.

Since 2018, hundreds of residents in the people’s housing project (PPR) there had to deal with serious defects involving units which were built by contractors hired by KPKT.

Unfortunately, it was only after the building was surrendered to DBKL and the defect liability period (DLP) had ended that problems started to emerge.

“Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Seri Mahadi Che Ngah said they could only carry out repairs for units that were rented out by DBKL,” said PPR Sri Aman Residents Association chairman Mohamed Nawaz Koya.

Private units facing similar problems had to bear the cost themselves as DBKL said it could not use public funds to repair them.

Nawaz said DBKL should discuss the matter with the housing ministry and find a solution to residents’ problems.

“For over a year, we were passed from one agency to another until a protest in front of DBKL headquarters in June finally got things moving,” he said.

He added that they were then given a list of contractors involved in the construction of the PPR.

Political considerations

Overlapping responsibilities also happens quite often between DBKL and the former Federal Territories ministry, affecting everything from flood management to licensing.

A senior official from City Hall, who did not want to be named, cited the “Wilayah Bebas Berniaga” (Federal Territory Free Trade Zone) initiative introduced by the then minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic as an example.

“While it was a noble effort to allow people to earn a living, it has turned out to be a big mess that we are finding hard to resolve,” he said.

The senior official said that allowing people to trade on roadsides went against the zero roadside hawkers policy and was hurting the city’s public food courts.

The Federal Territory Free Trade Zone initiative had been extended three times. The current period is slated to end on Dec 31,

Despite a great number of complaints from the public regarding the resulting traffic congestion and the nuisance, the policy may not be going away anytime soon.

Another example cited by the official was the ban on the owners of Crackhouse Comedy Club in Taman Tun Dr Ismail after the controversy over one of its performer’s show earlier this year.

“Our recommendation for a one-year suspension was overruled. By right, the Federal Territories ministry cannot overrule DBKL.

“This happens a lot when dealing with licensing issues.

“We already have existing by-laws, but politicians will ask us to come up with new guidelines,’’ he added.

Crackhouse Comedy Club had its business licence suspended by DBKL for violating the terms.

The then deputy Federal Territories minister Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias had been quoted as saying that the club’s owners would be blacklisted for life.

As for the Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020, Selamatkan Kuala Lumpur (SKL) chairman Datuk M. Ali alleged that there was interference in the final version.

He claimed that the earlier one, which had input from stakeholders, was changed drastically.

“SKL had asked the then Federal Territories minister Khalid Abdul Samad not to sign and approve the mutilated KLCP 2020 but he went ahead.

“At the initial stage of signing the KLCP 2020 itself, there were about 273 amendments, and this increased to 500 to date,’’ added Ali.