Association calls for better protection for construction players
KUALA LUMPUR: Master Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM) hopes that the government can further improve the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Act 2020 to offer more solid and permanent protection to construction industry players.
This is especially with regards to extension of time provision and cost sharing, said its president, Tan Sri Sufri Mohd Zin.
“Contractors have been taking proactive measures to test their workers even when there is no surety of claims and currently there is no provision for this actual expense. As it is, margins are already thinning and this is still an unresolved matter for many members,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Sufri said MBAM had on Feb 2 this year handed over a proposal to improve the Act for the benefit of MBAM members and the construction industry to the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia.
He said the Act needed to be improved although under the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) (Extension of Operation) Order 2020, the measures had been extended for another three months until March 31, 2021.
On Feb 25, MBAM, together with five other construction associations, in a joint memorandum appealed to the government for the postponement of one year to provide an opportunity for the industry to be better prepared in terms of time and finances to comply with the requirement of the latest amendments to the Employees' Minimum Standards of Housing, Accommodations and Amenities Act 1990 (Act 446).
“The construction industry is in view that all constructionrelated issues have to be under a single unified supervision of CIDB,” he said.
On another note, Sufri informed MBAM members that the Malaysian Public Works Department had started implementing the Standard Operating Procedures on Advertising, Online Sale of Tender Documents and Tender Closing in the New Normal which will be in effect until Aug 31 this year. - Bernama