KUDAT: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) deputy president Datuk Chin Su Phin Chin urged the government to take stern action, including sacking officers who acted against government directives.
For instance, he said the Lahad Datu District Council and a company had signed a lease agreement to operate a food court for a period of 15 years, whereby the lease was to be renewed every five years.
Two years ago, the food court operator applied for the renewal of the lease upon obtaining the approval from the Ministry of Local Government and Housing. The operator has even agreed to rebuilding parts of the structure which was damaged in a fire two years ago.
However, Chin said the district council has not signed the lease renewal agreement till now, adding that the officer was also making things difficult for the operator.
“The operator has subsequently lodged a report with the police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
“The Ministry of Local Government and Housing has recently issued another letter to the Lahad Datu District Council instructing them to renew the lease.
“But for some reason, the district council has not acted on the directive,” he said when officiating at the LDP Tanjong Kapor annual divisional conference here yesterday.
Chin pointed out that the executive officer’s blatant defiance of the directive issued by the Ministry of Local Government and Housing seemed to indicate that he has more power than the minister himself.
He said the executive officer was later assigned to swap positions with the Papar District Officer but the latter refused to transfer, even though the his successor had arrived in Lahad Datu to assume the new post.
After a period of stalemate, he said both the officers ended up being transferred to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing while the Lahad Datu executive officer position remained vacant till now.
“Stern action must be taken against officers who refuse to obey government directives, including firing them from the civil service.
“These arrogant officers have tarnished the image of the government and BN.”
At the same time, Chin hoped that the Lahad Datu District Council would renew the lease for the food court operator immediately since the Ministry of Local Government and Housing has granted its approval
On another note, Chin said there were still many problems with the mechanism of the Goods and Service Tax (GST).
Chin said he had personally met with the Royal Malaysia Customs Department (RMCD) director-general in Kuala Lumpur regarding issues with his GST summons. However, the director-general informed him that the RMCD had dedicated power to its state counterparts to handle appeals pertaining to GST summonses.
“So I returned to Sabah to meet with the Customs officer in charge, who agreed that my summons could be withdrawn after I clarified the issue.”
However, Chin was told that the withdrawal of the GST summons must be done through the RMCD network system which has not been activated in Sabah at this stage.
“As such, the officer could not do anything in this case.”
He said summonses were issued to businesses if they were a day late in making GST payments.
“If the summons is not paid, the business operators will be blacklisted and barred from leaving the country by the Immigration Department.”
Chin said the RMCD should have made sure the department’s network system in Sabah could perform the necessary functions when the headquarters dedicated the power to handle GST summons appeals to the State.
On a final note, Chin said LDP had always put the people first and would not hesitate to point out weaknesses in the government.
“The people have entrusted us with voicing out their grievances. And we are willing to take up this responsibility.”
He also hoped that when the BN government was given the mandate again in the next general election, the coalition would carry out bold reformations to rectify any weaknesses and deviations in administration in order to regain the people’s trust.