Streamline other areas just as much
The Star 15/06/2003

STATE governments and local authorities are to centralise the handling of applications for building plans and certificates of fitness for occupation (CFOs). This is envisaged as part of the federal government’s economic stimulus package designed to spur production and consumption.

Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting recently announced that guidelines will soon be issued on this change. These guidelines will complement earlier ones issued in 2001 setting deadlines for approving building plans and CFOs.

Not everything that is centralised can be expected to yield positive results. However, streamlining the approvals procedure for the construction industry in this way can only produce better results for all concerned.

For a start, developers for whom time is money will be relieved that cumbersome obstacles are removed. At the very least, the circuitous route of negotiating all the relevant public service bureaucracies would be minimised.

More projects would now be completed earlier, encouraging yet more projects, thus serving the people and the market better. Unnecessary costs would be removed or reduced, as a more direct link between production and consumption is established.

Other benefits of this move include raising the productivity and efficiency of local officials. At the same time, the economic cycle enjoys a welcome shot in the arm while corruption and its temptations are diminished.

In the interests of smoother and more effective administration, the federal and state governments know they need to work in coordination rather than confusion.

For the federal authorities to guide state authorities on the streamlining of the approvals procedure by centralising it is one way to make that happen.

There are other measures that should be taken in the larger public interest. The Housing and Local Government Ministry is considering redefining local authority employment as part of state government employment, so that staff may be transferred or redeployed according to their performance.

Once this practice is established, it will be able to serve the people and the nation better.

The new guidelines for smoothening workflow in the construction industry will be monitored continuously. From every indication, the federal government looks serious in ensuring adherence to the new rules.

This is as it should be, since such streamlining has not come a moment too soon. Certainly, recent developments have shown that some public officials serving in local authorities need more guidance from the federal authorities.

Although these changes in the pipeline were originally proposed as part of a stimulus package, their benefits are set to spread farther and wider.

By involving the multi-faceted construction industry for example, several positive knock-on effects in subsidiary or other related industries should be on the way.

The question that Malaysians are now apt to ask is: in which other areas or industries can similar streamlining measures help productivity and production?

Improving the standard of public services is never a lost cause nor is it anything that any sensible person would oppose or reject.