Speaking at a seminar on the Transformation of the Construction Industry 2016, Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Noh Omar said although the number of cases involving the use of substandard building materials was low, it was enough to cause serious damage to the construction industry’s image and the image of the country.

“This not only puts off the youth from joining the construction industry, where jobs will then be taken up by outsiders, but the world will think that the construction industry in this country is of low quality,” he said.

He said there were several factors that resulted in building failures, including the materials used during construction, construction methods, the competency of the workers as well as the construction designs.

He pointed out that under Act 520, CIDB was given the authority to enter any construction premises without warrants and to stop projects or impound building materials, if it found that the construction projects did not follow the rules of the Act.

Defaulters could also be fined up to RM500,000.

Safety at construction sites came under the spotlight after a woman was killed when a crane hook became detached and fell 20 storeys onto her car in Jalan Raja Chulan last month.

Meanwhile, Noh Omar also told CIDB to look into the quality of Industrialised Building System (IBS) materials.

“The government recommends using IBS materials, but contractors say they are of low quality. This is something CIDB should look into.

“I myself saw how it took a very short time to build a school using IBS materials, but it was later found that the quality of the school building was not that good.”

IBS is a technique of construction where components are manufactured in a controlled environment (either on or off site), and then assembled during construction works.