Adopt common customers' charter, ministry tells depts 

The Star 23/01/ 2002

PETALING JAYA: All departments and agencies under the Housing and Local Government Ministry have been directed to adopt a common customers’ charter to ensure effective public service, said its minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting. 

This would be possible with the implementation of the Guideline Process on Building Plans Approval. 

“The new guidelines, approved by the Cabinet in November, will be adopted by all the various departments and local authorities under the jurisdiction of the ministry to compliment their Client’s Charter for greater transparency and expediency. 

“The guidelines were drafted after receiving feedback from all the agencies and departments like the land office, local authorities, Fire and Rescue Department and Sewerage Department. 

“Then, all of them will be given a reasonable time to adopt these guidelines into their Client’s Charter. We do not want finger-pointing when there is a delay, for example for the application of land for the release of strata titles, because in the end the confidence of house buyers and consumers would be affected,” he said after launching the Second National Building Control Conference at the Hilton Hotel here. 

Ong added that his ministry was given six months from last November to forward a detailed report to the Cabinet on the flaws in the various departments in relation to the process of building houses and amenities. 

“The Housing Ministry will prepare a comprehensive report in four months after we get information from all parties. We will then report to the Cabinet on the weaknesses in the various departments. 

“For example, when the new Housing Development Act comes into force next month, all developers must inform the secretary-general of the Housing Ministry when they applied for the Certificate of Fitness (CF) and why it was rejected. 

“From the information, the ministry will be able to see why the CF was not approved and where the weaknesses are. 

“Some projects take seven to eight years and this is ridiculous,” he said, adding that if all the departments and agencies could work together concurrently in a housing project, the time and money saved would in turn help improve the country’s economy.