Two new committees in Sandakan council

SANDAKAN: In accordance with Sandakan Municipal Council’s (SMC) effort to prevent and eradicate corruption, as well as to practise transparency in its administration, SMC is announcing the formation of two new committees in the council.

The committees are the Projects Coordinator Committee (for projects including rural projects under SMC’s monitoring), and Coordinating and Monitoring Committee (for issuance of occupation certificate, endorsement of development plans and building plans).

According to SMC President Datuk Peter Hii Chang Lik, the Projects Coordinator Committee functions and terms of reference are: to coordinate project proposals; to work out Bill of Quantities of the intended projects; to check project approved Warrants and to ensure that projects are given in compliance with procurement procedures.

The Coordinating and Monitoring Committee functions and terms of reference are, among others, all the development plans and building plans are to submit forward to the committee and there to process, while those that have been approved by the Building Plan Committee and Town Planning Committee will need to be verified and reconfirmed again by this new committee, and only then the said plans will to be signed by the President of SMC.

He said completed development projects which warrant for the issuance of Occupation Certificate will also be discussed with substantiation, confirmation and verification by this Committee and thereto with the satisfaction of this Committee, the Certificate shall only be issued and signed by the President of SMC himself.

“The Council is hoping with this effort, it will help the Council in boosting its efficiency and its service quality towards the public.

“The council is also requesting the cooperation from all the developers’ consultants and contractors to cooperate with the Council in practicing transparency with its administration to ensure the integrity of the public service be enhanced and maintained,” he said.

Meanwhile, Peter advised locals to deal directly with SMC regarding business license.

He said that the payments or fees charged by the council regarding business licenses are RM10 for application of new license, RM5 for renewal of license, RM5 for amendment of licence details and RM25 for annual business license fee.

“The council has received multiple complaints from the public who have engaged the service of a runner, especially regarding inflated service fee. Such incident will then lead to confusion on fees charged by the council being too high, thus tarnishing the image and integrity of the council,” he said.

He emphasised that fees charged by SMC with business licenses are fixed rate. In the event new applicants or existing license holders are engaging the service of a runner, and the fees are different from stated, the differences does not concern SMC. Therefore, new applicants or existing license holders should pay attention about this matter.

“There should not be any delay for the renewal or issuance of business licenses (except Entertainment Licenses) provided all necessary documents are completed as the authorised signature was already pre-signed and scanned to the system to speed up the renewal application,” he said.

For further inquiry, locals could contact Licensing Unit of SMC at 089-275 400 (723).