PETALING JAYA: Using technology and adopting a whole-of-society approach are among the ways to tackle the mushrooming of illegal care centres in residential areas, say experts.
Malaysian Association of Social Workers vice-president Amy Bala suggested using technology to sift through integrated data from relevant agencies to identify and weed out unregistered care centres.
She said agencies such as the Registrar of Societies (ROS), Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) and Social Welfare Department (JKM) have data that could be integrated.
“Each time a society or business registers using keywords such as ‘welfare’, ‘taska’ or ‘care centre’, the system would automatically flag it to JKM for follow-up action.
“With today’s technology, all this can be done with one click. It’s not that difficult,” she said.
Amy also proposed that ROS and SSM play a more active role by including mandatory questions in business registration forms.
“There should be a question on whether they are operating a care centre and, if so, whether they are registered with JKM,” she said.
She added that four types of care centres operate nationwide.
They are centres that are registered and comply with relevant requirements; unregistered centres operating casually without awareness of legal requirements; centres registered with ROS but without JKM approval; and centres registered with SSM for financial purposes but operating illegally under the relevant laws governing care centres.
Amy added that high registration costs and cumbersome requirements were among the reasons some care centres end up operating illegally.
“Many are sincere in wanting to help, but when they have to pay architects and ‘runners’ and wait months for approvals, they choose the easy way by operating without registering,” she said.
She said others prefer paying compound fines that are lower than the cost of registering their centres.
Be My Protector vice-chairman Prof Dr Isdawati Ismail said some centres, which are set up out of genuine goodwill or compassion, eventually end up on the wrong side of the law.
“As their operations grow, some operators may gradually become more commercially and profit-driven.
“This overshadows the importance of professional care, proper staffing and compliance with regulations,” she said.
She suggested that care-centre registration should not be a one-off exercise.
“A centre may comply when applying for registration, but standards can deteriorate over time.
“Periodic and risk-based spot checks are important to ensure that standards are continuously maintained,” she said.
Rather than relying solely on heavier penalties, Prof Isdawati said a combination of prevention, monitoring, enforcement and public participation is needed to address the issue of unregistered centres.
She also said a simple, accessible reporting system should be created to allow the public to lodge reports against dubious care centres.
“Punishment alone will not solve the problem if enforcement agencies do not know where these centres are operating.
“This is why public reporting is extremely important, via simple, accessible and well-publicised channels, for the public and even former employees to report suspected unregistered centres or cases of abuse and neglect,” she said.
Ultimately, Prof Isdawati said the issue of unregistered care centres should not be viewed merely as a matter of shutting them down, but of protecting children and the elderly.
