By Karen Bong
KUCHING, July 16: Contractors ‘sakit’ who fail to perform up to standards are at risk of not only being terminated of their services but being put on a governmentwide blacklist of shame to bar them from receiving or procuring contracts and projects from any agencies and departments.
Committed to taking every action necessary to protect taxpayers’ money, Minister of Public Health, Housing and Local Government Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian emphasised that its ministry will look into setting up a tool to share the data and information of contractors who acted incompetently in all projects and not only engaged by the local councils.
“I will ask the permanent secretary to look into the ‘sakit’ contractors. We don’t want these underperformed contractors, after being terminated, to go to other councils or agencies to get jobs.
“(In this digital and technology era), we should share our information and data internally (governmentwide) so that all local authorities, agencies and departments are aware and know of these bad contractors,” he said.
While the government will give opportunities to good contractors, he warned that they would not accept any sub-standard works from lousy contractors because “the public does not accept”.
The Deputy Premier raised this at a press conference after the swearing-in ceremony of Kuching South City Council (MBKS) Mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng, Deputy Mayor Hilmi Othman and 30 councillors whose term has been renewed for another six months at the MBKS Headquarters here today.
This came after Wee revealed that MBKS had received complaints on grass cutting services this year, whereby seven contractors have been issued with first warning letters, out of which two have received the second warning letters.
“Once they receive the third warning letter, they will be terminated and blacklisted. They will not be allowed to participate in future projects for a few years.
“We will also write to UPK (Contractor Registration Unit) to inform them of contractors who have been terminated from service,” he said.
Noting that some contractors have failed to perform up to expectations or standards, Wee, however, gave assurance that the Council is taking all necessary steps to ensure projects are not jeopardised and taxpayers’ money are not put at risk of waste or abuse.
“On behalf of the Council, we apologise to the people and will do our best to improve the overall situation.
“At the moment, there are 12 contractors engaged in taking care of 18 zones within the MBKS jurisdiction,” he added.
Wee pointed out that there is also a team monitoring complaints received through the i-People mobile app, where an investigation will be conducted before actions are taken. — DayakDaily
