Only 12 safety inspectors
With over 600 construction sites, only a handful can carry out checks
PETALING JAYA: There are more than 600 construction sites in Klang Valley alone. But, only 12 safety inspectors from the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) are on hand to carry out checks.
DOSH director-general Datuk Mohtar Musri said his department has about 80 staff in Kuala Lumpur, comprising 20 administrative and 60 technical employees.
He added of the 60, 12 are tasked to inspect construction sites while the rest monitored factories and other types of workplaces.
Mohtar said that DOSH staff needed adequate time to inspect each construction site as some sites are large and required several visits in order to complete their checks.
Each piece of lifting equipment such as tower cranes or mobile cranes must be checked and issued with a Certificate of Fitness (CF), which is valid for 15 months.
DOSH inspectors also check each scaffolding and guardrail as well as well audit the safety housekeeping practices at the worksites, he said.
“We are conducting as many inspections as possible including spot checks.
“But no matter how much we are able to do, people will still say that it is not enough because of the increasing number of construction sites,” Mohtar said yesterday.
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye hoped that the Public Service Department would provide more manpower to DOSH.
He added that it was important for contractors to give top priority to safety in light of accidents, such as the one last week where a woman was killed when her car was crushed by a crane hook that fell at a construction site in Kuala Lumpur.
Joice Chin Khoon Sing, 23, died when the crane hook fell more than 20 storeys and hit her car along Jalan Raja Chulan on Thursday.
In 2015, there were 140 deaths in the construction industry nationwide, which was a 57% increase compared to 2014.
Those found guilty of employing a non-Malaysian crane operator or not having a valid CF for a lifting crane can be penalised under the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994, which imposes a RM50,000 fine or two years jail or the Factory and Machinery Act 1967, which provides a fine of RM250,000 or two years jail or both.
Cuepacs president Datuk Azih Muda said construction employers cannot take lightly the training to operate heavy equipment or cut corners with cheaper foreign labour.
A health and safety consultant said tower crane operations need to conform to the Building Operations and Works of Engineering Construction regulation from DOSH and the Construction Standards Guidelines from Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB).
Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said that CIDB will investigate if the company that supplied the crane involved in the tragedy was registered.
Checks would also be made to see if the workers were qualified and were registered with the CIDB and possessed the green card, Fadillah added.