KUCHING, Aug 11: Under the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government, not only is the healthcare system of the country at the brink of breaking down, but also that of some over-the-counter services of the government departments, criticised DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen.
He pointed out that the appointment system with a daily quota adopted by departments and agencies such as the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRB), Road Transport Department (JPJ), Land and Survey Department and Immigration Department was grossly inefficient and insufficient to meet the demand for services.
“For the past few months, to the great inconvenience to the people, the IRB licencing department and JPJ have been using the appointment system.
“To make matters worse, the IRB limits 100 trade licence renewals or new licence applications per day. Trade licences had to be renewed yearly. With such a quota of 100 applications for renewal or new trade licences per day, there is only a maximum 25,000 trade license renewal or new licence applications per year for the whole of Kuching. That is grossly insufficient,” he said in a statement today.
As a result, Chong who is also Kota Sentosa assemblyman, said that businesses could hardly get their trade licences renewed and many could not get their road taxes paid, while many of those who could get things done, got them done with extra costs.
“It seems that the users must now pay extra money to get their appointment dates, otherwise, they will have to wait forever,” he claimed.
At the State government level, Chong who is also Stampin MP, observed that land transactions were delayed for weeks and months (most of these transactions have very strict time schedules) as well as that of the foreign workers’ permits applications and extensions.
“All these have severe economic costs to businesses. It is not only causing great inconvenience to the people but also great economic costs. That is also the reason why Sarawak is one of the worst GDP (gross domestic product) negative growth states,” he said.
Given that there is a 50 per cent workforce restrictions, he thus suggested that all these government departments should not continue with its 8am to 5pm work hour schedule but these departments’ over-the-counter services hours should instead be lengthened from 8am to 8pm.
“Since there is a 50 per cent restriction of the workforce at any one time, then divide them into two shifts of six working hours a day.
“In order to maximise the service hour for the public and clear all the current backlogs, the offices should not be closed for lunch or dinner but the workers may take turns for a short half hour break during their shifts,” he proposed.
Chong emphasised that lengthening the time for the over-the-counter service is the only way now to facilitate the provision of such services to the people and help to uplift our State’s economy.
“Otherwise, with all these very business-relevant services working at less than 50 per cent capacity, we will be very slow in our economic recovery,” he added. — DayakDaily
