Penampang District Council told to improve services
KOTA KINABALU: The upgrade of Penampang District Council to a municipal council should entail significant improvements to the public payment system to ensure a more efficient and better service.
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Public Complaints Bureau chief Chin Vun Pheaw said local governments should work hard to elevate their standard of service to their clientele, who are members of the public.
“District and municipal councils should strive for higher customers’ satisfaction on the policies they implement to fulfil their pledges to the public.”
He said many members of the public have complained about the poor attitude and inefficiency of local governments, which could be caused by manpower shortage or other factors.
Chin said he had recently received several reports from businesses on Penampang District Council’s delay in renewing trading licences.
He claimed that the district council has yet to renew the trading licences after a month despite having submitted the application online.
“It is disappointing that the local authority is not able to handle these matters efficiently.”
Upon visiting the Penampang District Council and talking to the officers, Chin learned that the council is currently short of staff, which hinders them from completing the tasks promptly.
He pointed out that lack of manpower is not an excuse for the inefficiency.
As a local government, he said the Penampang District Council should find ways to overcome the problem.
“If every district or municipal council faces the same problem, this will severely affect the local developments.”
Chin reminded the government that the introduction of online services serves to improve the efficiency of local governments, and the government should reflect on themselves if the online services fail to achieve the desired goal.
Chin also suggested to the Penampang District Council to emulate Kota Kinabalu City Hall’s (DBKK) efficiency in handling the renewal of trading licences.
“DBKK is able to issue new trading licence within a day if the documents submitted meet the requirements. This reduces a lot of unnecessary red tape.”
As the economy is recovering post pandemic, he said businesses and members of the public are more inclined to visit government departments personally for various matters in order to avoid additional expenditure.
Hence, he said government departments should display utmost cooperation instead of complicating a simple task and make things difficult for the public.
Deputy Chief Minister cum Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Dr Joachim Gunsalam when launching the 90-day countdown for Penampang District Council’s transition to a municipal council in January this year, hoped that the council members would exercise efficient and highintegrity governance as well as digitise service delivery for stakeholders for the convenience of taxpayers.