THE four bungalows belonging to the State Secretary Incorporated (SSI) on Penang Hill will be upgraded and a Request for Proposal has already been issued.

Penang Hill Corporation (PHC) general manager Dr Lawrence Khoo said there were a total of 45 bungalows on the hill.

The four bungalows are called Convalesence, Fernhill, Woodside and Hillside and the aim of the upgrade is to allow them to be used as guesthouses.

“We had an exit conference session with the Auditor-General’s office on March 18 to update the auditor on several issues,” said Dr Khoo during a tour to Penang Hill recently.

A local daily had recently cited the Auditor- General’s report which said that the four bungalows could not be used by visitors as they were not well-maintained and in bad condition.

“Presently, there are discussions between PHC and SSI on how best to upgrade the heritage bungalows which are privately owned and a Request for Proposal is being mooted for these bungalows,” he said.

Dr Khoo said another issue brought up in the report was the PHC webpage which had not been updated.

“We’ve appointed someone trained in IT to take over the maintenance of the webpage.”

Dr Khoo said the maintenance of the webpage was earlier outsourced.

According to the Auditor-General’s report, the webpage was not updated regularly, resulting in visitors getting the wrong information.