Hajiji: Red tape to be reduced
Published on: Friday, November 14, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: The Local Government and Housing Ministry is aiming to shorten the process of approving required documents for physical developments by reducing red tape. Minister Datuk Hajiji Mohd Noor said this was adopted from resolutions concluded in a convention of local authorities held this year, with a target to be implemented next year.In answering the government's call to have smart and sustainable development for the wellbeing of the people, he said all departments and agencies including local authorities will apply innovation and creativity in delivering their services to public.
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He also thanked the State government for allocating RM117.26 million for the ministry where RM94.30 million is allotted for expenditures and RM22.96 million for development programmes."During the local authorities' convention, several resolutions were drawn up that look practical and could be considered for implementation for the benefit of development projects and people's wellbeing."One of them is to streamline the process of approving development plans, building plans and issuance of Occupation of Certificates (O.C.) whereby we plan to activate a one-stop centre that will process and look into all the development projects applied by the developers."This will be done before the documents are sent to the Central Board in the ministry to be approved," Hajiji said this in his winding speech for his ministry at the State Legislative Assembly here.
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By adopting this approach, he hoped the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in all local authorities could cut down bureaucracy when handling the development plan, building plan and issuance of O.C.To strengthen the enforcement aspect, Hajiji said the ministry will make uniform several by-laws to help the local authorities carry out enforcement duties and that efforts to streamline other by-laws will be continued next year.
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For the first time, Hajiji said the National Audit Department awarded the ministry a four-star rating under the Financial Accountability Index 2013."Four district councils – Papar District Council, Kuala Penyu District Council, Lahad Datu District Council, and Nabawan District Council and Town Planning and Regional Department under my ministry have also been awarded the four-star rating."The ministry and these agencies will be getting the awards in a ceremony at Kedah on Nov 24 this year," he said.Replying to a proposal by Api-Api assemblywoman Christina Liew and Luyang assemblyman Hiew King Cheu on government measures to tackle hikes in housing prices, Hajiji said such phenomenon is happening globally including in Malaysia and indirectly affecting the financial standing of the people."The government has taken several measures to help low-income earners and youths to own houses. Among the measures are:l the ministry will ensure the private developers will not reap more than the fixed profit margin of 30 per cent from the total development costs for a housing project.l an incentive of RM30,000 will be given to house buyers especially under the MyHome 1 and MyHome 2 programme.l the government through the ministry will interact more with professional bodies to get accurate information on the real costs of housing development that would give the picture on each component into the costing and able to assess the real structure of housing prices.l to ask Royal Institute of Surveyors Malaysia to conduct a study on the causes of rising housing prices and to come up with positive proposals to address the issue.l the ministry will consider to create a post of Quantity Surveyor to be placed at Housing Controller Secretariat Division to help assess the development cost in detail that is submitted by the developers before the developer's licence is issued.l to ask the utilities agency to streamline the Capital Contribution rate charged by the housing developer in Sabah with those in the peninsula.l housing developers are required to fulfill a 30 per cent quota policy to build affordable homes in each of their housing projects where the size of the house must be between 850 and 1,000 sq ft with the pricing being not more than RM250,000 per unit.Replying to Liew, Hajiji said Sabah Housing Development and Town Authority (LPPB) had built 4,509 units of affordable houses and 385 units of high end houses implemented in a joint venture with the private sector from 2001 until this year.He said a total of 10,465 affordable houses and 3,649 high end houses will be constructed under the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP).Replying to Sri Tanjong assemblyman Chan Foong Hin on the landfill at Bukit Gemok, Tawau, Hajiji said the site will be upgraded to having an environment-friendly sanitary system where the solid and liquid waste will be processed and will not adversely affect the natural surroundings.He said the Bukit Gemok landfill has a life span that can sustain the pile of rubbish for another 10 years after the upgrading on the site and before this will be relocated to a new site with an integrated concept in the Balung area.Replying to Sukau assemblyman Datuk Saddi Abdul Rahman, Hajiji clarified that the State government did not allocate RM4.5 million for the development of new townships in Sabah for next year."It is not true that the ministry only allocates RM4.5 million for development of all new townships in the State next year."In fact, we allocated RM10 million as the funding for such purpose and each implementation of a new township would be done in stages as there are 68 new townships in Sabah," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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