KOTA KINABALU: The Putatan district office should make public how government documents could be found tossed indiscriminately at public beaches, says Putatan Umno chief Jeffery Nor Mohamed.
Official documents that are no longer needed should be sent to the State Archive Department for a decision on whether they should be filed or destroyed, he said.
“(Such documents) cannot be thrown or destroyed by the district office.
“The discovery of such documents at the beach raises questions among the public if there was something amiss, as some documents were tenders for district office projects.
“It is important for the Putatan district office to make its investigations public,” he said following social media posts on Feb 1 that showed discarded documents along a beach area in Putatan.
Following the discovery, Putatan district officer Masawi Salleh said his office views the matter seriously and has begun internal investigations after retrieving all the documents at the site.
On Feb 2, he said in a statement that the Sabah State Archives had conducted an inspection at the district office, and his office had provided full cooperation.
Masawi said an internal probe is underway to determine the cause of the incident and to assess compliance with record management procedures.
“The district office has implemented temporary measures to prevent similar incidents.
“This includes reviewing and tightening procedures for managing and disposing of official records to ensure full compliance with regulations and guidelines,” he said.
“The Putatan District Office takes this matter seriously and is committed to improving governance and record management to uphold the integrity of the public service,” Masawi said.
