CM praised for empowering district councils to approve devt plans

KOTA KINABALU: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president, Datuk Chin Su Phin, yesterday praised the State Government led by Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Shafie Apdal, for taking action to rectify the flawed policies of the previous administration by transferring the power to approve development plans (DPs) and building plans (BPs) from the Central Board back to district councils.

He said the Central Board was originally tasked to assess DPs that required rezoning only, but the then state government during Tan Sri Musa Aman’s tenure as chief minister had decided that all development projects had to be submitted to the board.

“The Central Board has no sufficient manpower nor the necessary technical expertise to evaluate DPs or BPs, and this resulted in delays for approvals of DPs,” Chin said.

As such, Chin said, he supported Shafie’s decision to empower district councils to approve development projects.

With the heavy responsibility of approving DPs and BPs resting on the shoulders of the mayor, district officers and councillors, he hoped there would be no more power abuse or corruption involved in granting the approval.

He said, LDP would monitor all district councils to make sure the process of approving DPs was expedited.

“Members of the public who encounter officers who deliberately delay or hinder the approval of DPs are welcome to file a complaint with LDP and we will do our best to assist them,” Chin said in a statement yesterday.

Chin claimed that the policy for all DPs to be submitted to the Central Board was made during the dispute over the Mazu statue project in Kudat.

Chin said he had raised the Central Board issue in the first Sabah BN meeting chaired by Musa but received no straight answer from the latter.

“In the meeting, I had asked him about the Mazu statue project and he said the Central Board had not approved the development. I told him that if the Mazu project was illegal because it had not been approved by the Central Board, all the buildings in Sabah, including his own residence, should be considered illegal structure,” he said, adding that the Mazu statue had already obtained approval from Kudat District Council before the project commenced.

The next day, Chin issued a press statement demanding Musa to step down as chief minister over the Central Board issue.

With the change of government, he was pleased to see that Shafie had taken swift action to rectify flawed policies imposed by the previous government.

“As the Chief Minister, I hope he will monitor the operations of district councils given that the district officers were appointed by the State Government. The State Government must ensure that all submitted DPs and BPs were processed and approved accordingly,” Chin said.

Shafie recently said that the State Government was looking at shutting down the Central Board and empowering district councils to grant approvals for DPs in order to speed up the process.

The Chief Minister also assured that instruments would be put in place to ensure no abuses or corruption in district councils during implementation.