Jaujan (seated third right) with participants who attended the Roles and Responsibilities of the District Council Members Seminar 2019.
KOTA KINABALU: District councillors are not allowed to be involved in any tender for district council’s development projects, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Jaujan Sambakong.
Jaujan, who is also the state Local Government and Housing Minister, stressed that the role of district councillors is to assist the district council in the planning of development and to ensure that all development projects are implemented.
“District Council is not the place to make money. It is a place where councillors contribute their ideas. So, if any of the councillors are found abusing their power to get projects, the minister can terminate their post within 24 hours.
“We want to ensure our local authorities operate transparently and we want to avoid any abuse of power, as clearly explained by the representative from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today,” he said.
Jaujan was commenting on the points highlighted by a speaker from the MACC yesterday at the Roles and Responsibilities of the District Council Members Seminar 2019 held at Shangri-La’s Tanjung Aru Resort.
The officer had highlighted that abuse of power to get projects and receiving bribes are the top offences investigated by the MACC in Sabah involving civil servants and top management of local authorities.
Earlier in his speech, Jaujan urged district councillors to find new methods and ways to increase the income of district councils.
Two representatives from the top councils in Malaysia, namely, Subang Jaya Municipal Council and Seberang Perai Municipal Council, were invited to share their experience on how they improved their income and services.
The speaker from Subang Jaya Municipal Council shared how the council started with a RM20 million deficit to a RM300 million income annually, while the speaker from Seberang Perai Municipal Council shared how their management had fully utilised technology as a method to speed up payment of assessments.
The event yesterday was the second series of seminars organised, where 12 district councils were involved.