KOTA KINABALU: The Kota Belud Welfare Services Department is under fire for allegedly operating under hours and providing poor service to the public.
A woman who went to the department office on Friday (March 10) shared on social media how she had arrived at the welfare office in Kota Belud at around 9.30am, to find the shutters half opened.
Inside, she said the lights were almost all switched off except for one or two while two people were on duty.
“It was so dark and I am dumbfounded as to how they could work under such circumstances. I thought that there must have been a power outage then,” she wrote.
When she asked whether it was normal for the department to only “half-open” on Thursdays and Fridays, the worker inside allegedly said ‘yes’, and that they only handled cases with prior appointments.
She claimed that when she asked for some forms, the workers told her that they did not handle on-the-spot cases, even if it was just to hand over forms.
“The worker said it is because to take the forms, we need to provide our identification cards for them to register,” said the woman.
She said although there was a notice saying that they only handled appointments, she wondered why it was so difficult for them to attend to simple cases such as handing out application forms or forms relating to welfare services.
She said there were not many people at the office when she was there, and that she would have understood if there was a queue or if staff members were busy attending to customers at that time.
The post by Facebook account username LY Jeff was soon flooded with comments from other users sharing similar experiences with other government departments including the Kota Belud Welfare Department office.
Some shared how their relatives waited for a long time to get approval for their welfare application, while others called for a revamp of the system and civil service so as to improve the quality of service given to the people.
Her Facebook post - https://www.facebook.com/huwaidah.yuusof - got over 1,100 shares within seven hours of posting about the matter.
Sabah Welfare Services Department director Jais Asri, when contacted, said there were no changes in the operational hours in any of the state welfare offices or departments.
However, he said there was a power supply issue in the Kota Belud welfare office and the contractors were already fixing it.
He said it has been like that for about a week, adding that the working hour remains at 8am to 5pm, unless there is an emergency or if the staff have to go out for field work.
He also said there is a lack of manpower in the Kota Belud welfare office.
