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Labuan Chamber slams IWK over poor services
Published on: Wednesday, January 28, 2015
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Labuan: Chairman of the Labuan Chinese Chamber of Commerce (LCCC) Datuk Wong Kii Yii lamented that the government-appointed sewerage experts – Indah Water Konsortium – did not have a "technical office" here for prompt approval of sewerage plan drawings and had to be submitted to its office in Kuala Lumpur which took months for obtaining approval, causing not only delay in the issuance of Occupation Certificate (OC) but also financial problems to developers.Wong said developers had complained to him that prior to the establishment of IWK here, Labuan never had such problem.

"Sewerage services were cheaply available from the local authority but now, property owners and developers paid a bundle to IWK, including those property owners who seldom used IWK's services but faced so many problems."

Wong added that the delayed approval not only affected new and upcoming big housing estates but also small developers who are building a few new houses in a village locality.

Saying that this was a serious matter and reflected the need for IWK to improve its delivery system immediately, Wong appealed to the Chairman of the Labuan Corporation, Datuk Rozman Isli and its CEO Dato Mohd Nadzri Osman, to bring up the matter to IWK headquarters through the ministry that was supervising it.

Wong said the chamber was not against the services of IWK.

"What we are against was its services," he said, adding that there is a need to upgrade the sewerage disposal system of the island and IWK being in Labuan for more than 10 years, should know better how to satisfy its customers.

"It is within the right of property owners to express dissatisfaction since these owners paid a substantial amount to IWK, in some cases, running into thousands of ringgit," said Wong.

He said IWK should invest in having a full-fledged operation in the island.

Wong also warned that IWK should not behave that it was indispensable, saying that neither Sabah and Sarawak had agreed to its extension into these two states and both Sabah and Sarawak faced no problems without IWK, "but ironically we seem to have a problem here."

He recalled that when IWK wanted to extend its services here, Labuan resisted due to its charges but the consortium managed to "push" its way since Labuan was a Federal Territory.

Wong said IWK should make its customers feel that its services were worthy.

Wong also noted that in some cases, IWK's actions were ridiculous and cited a case last year as proof of this.

He said a sewerage line had burst between shoplots in the town area, the leakage cause an offensive odour, effecting surround shops in the area, including food stalls, restaurants, coffee shops etc.

Wong said when the chamber complained, the reply given by IWK was that the repair to the broken sewerage line was held because a property owner in the area had unsettled IWK bill of RM7,000.

"The incident affected so many shops and why were they being penalised due to the debt of one property owner in the area. I don't see the logic".

He said after the complains by the Chamber, and IWK allowing the town to smell horrible for days, finally had the affected line repaired.

Wong said the Chamber would be officially writing to IWK to establish its technical office here.





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