Adopt Berjaya Govt strategy on approvals

Published on: Saturday, March 17, 2018

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By Retired Civil Servant
DURING Berjaya’s nine years as the Sabah State Government, it directed that decisions and approvals must be made within days or at most a week.

For example at the State Action Development Committee Meeting held on October 15, 1980, the Chief Minister said that Petronas was willing and ready to open at least one petrol kiosk in every district of Sabah.

The Chief Minister directed all District Officers to look for suitable locations and submit site plans to the State Secretary within one week. (Note the time limit given).

At that time, the District Officers were “jacks of all trade”. The State Secretary would then submit a list of sites with approvals of land alienation to Petronas so that it could go ahead with the construction of Petrol Kiosks.

This is speed. Speed saves time and money.

The above incident was reproduced on page 13 of the March 10, 2018 issue of the Daily Express on its “Archives: Know Sabah’s History” page every Saturday.

This was reported in Daily Express on October 15, 1980 about 38 years ago giving just one example of the emphasis on speed of decisions and approvals during the Berjaya Administration.

The Berjaya Government also directed all heads of Federal and State Departments to compile a list of issues or subjects that the general public frequently required; the applicants must be informed of the time limits for the Department to make decisions and approvals. For transparency, the State Action Development Committee and Town Board meetings were opened to the general public and reporters.

for these reasons many people still remember the Berjaya era.

These days, both Federal and State Departments take weeks or months to decide and approve simple matters submitted for their decisions and approvals.

These cause unnecessary delays and cost time and money.

Just to obtain permits in accordance with the laws and policies of either the Federal or State Government take up too much time. These days Federal Departments will submit to Kuala Lumpur for approvals; this includes Custom Declarations.

All these delays are unnecessary, because at end of the day, the Departments will approve the applications.

Therefore, why is it necessary to hold the applications in the file for days, weeks and months?

Such delays cause frustrations among the applicants, particularly business people who want to proceed quickly.

Another good example is the delivery of telephone service that can take weeks, even after payment has been made. This is not only bad practice but bad business for Telekom.

The minute service is installed, Telekom will start getting money. It is understood that delays happen because Telekom has to get contractors to get the job done. On equal footings – such as vacant office or apartments at Kota Kinabalu City also will take more than a week, whereas in Singapore only 30 minutes.

Within the city Kota Kinabalu is easier (smaller), Singapore larger and traffic jam. How to progress?

I remember that at the beginning of Berjaya Government in 1976, at the State Development Action Committee Meeting, officials and departments were still vague about the requests for lands for Bank Negara and Post Office.

The Chief Minister then turned to the Director of Lands and Surveys Department and asked if there was land available along Jalan Saman.

The then Director said “yes”, there were sufficient areas for both.

The Chief Minister then said OK, allocate two lots – for Bank Negara and Post Office and give approval straight away. I also remembered, the Chief Minister saying what is the worry?

The State should approve any requests from the Federal Government for its purposes in Sabah.

The Chief Minister continued saying once it is built whatever happened the Federal Government cannot move the building to Kuala Lumpur – it will remain in Sabah.

The present State Government should adopt Berjaya Government’s practice that departments must entertain and approve any request from the General Public as long as the requests are in accordance with the laws and policies of the Government.

If this can be done then Tan Sri Datuk Musa Aman’s proactive vision on the economy and businesses undertakings can be accelerated for the economic development of Sabah.

The slow response to requests or applications from the general public must be stopped.

Retired Civil Servant