“It’s scary that MBPJ has accumulated over RM300 million worth of reserves because of its inability to spend the budget during past years.
“With the lack of stewardship and given the withholding of information, residents fear that these reserves are being released through ‘approved’ ad hoc projects, overpayment for shoddy works and perhaps leakages.”
For starters, it sees the need for a budget monitoring committee.
“It’s incremental budgeting that’s providing opportunities for funds to be diverted to ad hoc projects,” said CGG in a statement.
“In the ambiguous setting of incremental budgeting, the final figures are general lump sums.
“There should be zero-based budgeting where there’s clarity on figures.”
The yearly public dialogue on the budget must be more transparent with adequate notice given and the financial figures made available to the public, at least two weeks before the dialogue, added the NGO.
“We firmly believe that it’s important to create an environment where shoddy workmanship can be avoided.
“The root cause of many of the public complaints originates from governance factors rather than the capability of the staff.”
CGG also urged MBPJ to include representatives from the public and NGOs in the budget monitoring committee.
“The MBPJ website must carry all Bill of Quantities for tenders that are approved and the name of the company that successfully bid for the tender.
“The MBPJ Tender Board should show evidence that all tendering companies submit evidence of asset ownership and work track record to qualify for participating in the tender.
“This will prevent crony companies from winning tenders only to sub-contract to other contractors, leaving an unrealistic amount for the final sub-contractor to do a good job.”
The NGO said assurances coming from MBPJ that investigations were being carried out on complaints served little to allay the concerns of the public.
“A deadline to announce the results of investigations must be put on all such statements so that everyone is assured that nothing will be swept under the carpet.”
The CGG also expressed concern over the lack of transparency and accountability on the part of MBPJ over shoddy workmanship on road medians, made using plaster and sand instead of concrete.
“Recent newspaper reports quoted an MBPJ councillor as saying that the use of such inferior materials raised suspicions of ‘cheating, breach of contract, abuse of power, corrupt practices and conduct jeopardising public safety and money’.
“It became even more suspicious when all the offending road medians were quickly demolished after the issue was highlighted in the press.”
Like the road medians, said CGG, the public was also concerned about the one-way loop (OWL) road system. “Its current bad condition does not reflect the RM23.8 million spent on it.”
The reluctance of MBPJ to provide concrete explanations to queries from residents has apparently created a trust deficit and reflected poorly on the council as a leading model city administration.
On examination of the MBPJ website, under “archives”, it was found that the council had not uploaded its annual reports since 2010. Residents were not being informed of how public funds were spent.