KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) Workers’ Union has strongly opposed the suggestion of a management takeover by Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (Shareda) or any private bodies.
“It makes no sense that an association whose mission is to build properties and reap huge amount of profits will be able to take over the responsibility of SESB which is a government-run company,” said the union’s president, Azhar Datuk Haji My Ahmad, in a statement yesterday.
He said that it was strange that comments of a takeover were only heard after SESB had increased its tariff and received its infrastructure development project allocation as well as the significant reduction of SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index).
“When SESB was faced with financial difficulties in terms of operational cost and project development, we never heard of such initiatives,” he said.
Azhar added that they appreciated the assistance from the Federal and State Governments as well as from Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) which have faithfully rendered their assistance to SESB to ensure it could continue implement its responsibilities and improve financially.
“As the representative of the workers, we are confident that the management and citizens of SESB will always endeavor to improve the quality of our services despite the numerous challenges faced,” he said.
He also said that TNB had forked out millions of ringgit to help fund SESB costs.
Azhar added that Shareda had blamed the Consumer Connection Charges (CCC) as the main contributing causes for housing prices to go up in Sabah.
“However, all are aware that the prices of houses are based on market speculation activities. Even Francis Goh (Shareda president) has mentioned that the CCC only contributed around three per cent of the overall cost of development. So why is the CCC charge of three per cent suddenly the cause of house prices doubling?”
“If Shareda is so great in addressing financial issues, why can’t it control the price of properties throughout Sabah?” he questioned.
“To show off its greatness, Shareda should not look merely at the weaknesses of other organisations. Show your capability by controlling the price of housing for the benefit of the people. Prove that the cost of all types of houses will be reduced by 15 per cent this year. Don’t talk so big,” he said.