‘Not enough staff to clear work backlog during festivities’
KUCHING: The registry counters at the Land and Survey Department office here apparently could not clear the backlog of work recently due to insufficient staff.
According to Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen, only two employees were on duty to serve clients on Thursday and yesterday, as a large number of staff members were still on Hari Raya leave.
He said the registry counters had to register about 110 instruments a day on average, making the office the busiest in the state. The Land and Survey Department Kuching office completed 28,000 registrations of instruments last year alone.
“Of late, there has been a terrible backlog in registration of instruments at the Land and Survey Department Kuching office due to racial imbalance. There are 24 employees at the Registry Department at the moment, of whom 17 are Malays, six Dayaks and one Indian. There is zero Chinese, according to the employees’ chart,” he told reporters at the department’s office along Jalan Badruddin here yesterday.
Chong, also Kota Sentosa assemblyman and state DAP chairman, said while the registry counters had to register 110 instruments per day, they managed only 40 during the just- concluded Ramadan month, and the backlog remained as at yesterday.
He claimed that the lopsided racial composition of the department staff led to a lot of work not being done, and had inconvenienced staff members like seven of them having to be on duty on off-festive days.
“Even with seven employees at work, they can barely clear the workload. I was told that some clerks from legal firms had to queue up outside the gate of the Land and Survey Department Kuching office as early as 6am just to get a number to make sure that their instruments could be registered that day,” remarked Chong.
Time is of the essence when it comes to registration of land-related instruments, he said and as such, he hoped that the understaffing problem at the Land and Survey Department Kuching office could be resolved.
Chong was accompanied by Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong.
After the press conference, reporters who wanted to get comments from the Kuching Land and Survey superintendent were told that he was on a festive break and would be back by Monday (July 5).
A walkabout outside the registry counters uncovered a notice on the entrance informing the public of a change in operation hours during the Ramadan month.
A plaque placed near the entrance says the registry counters operate from 9am to noon and 2pm to 4pm from Mondays to Thursdays, and 8.30am to 11am and 2.15pm to 4pm on Fridays.