Chairman expects excellence from SRDC councillors

SIBU: Sibu Rural District Council (SRDC) will not accept anything less than satisfactory performance by its councillors, including the new ones, says its chairman Sempurai Petrus Ngelai.

He informed that the council and Ministry of Local Government and Housing will monitor each councillor’s Key Performance Indicator (KPI).

“This is to ensure they perform their duty efficiently and achieve the council’s Balance Score Card (BSC) and target.

“I cannot accept anything less as we are a municipal services provider to the taxpayers. Hence, the level of these services needs to be on par or above, to meet the public’s rising expectations,” he said during the full council meeting yesterday.

He called on councillors to go to the ground to understand first-hand the problems and issues faced by the people.

“I humbly remind all of our SRDC councillors that our dedication is not only at the conference or meeting room. As policy makers, going down to the ground to get clearer and accurate picture of the problems is most important,” he stressed.

“In that way, being the first line of contact with the people, councillors will be able to understand be er the problems and issues on the ground, and to act on them before they snowball into complaints,” he emphasised.

SRDC divides its area into 27 zones. Of its 31 councillors, 16 are new faces.

The chairman admi ed that it will not easy to cover every nook and corner of the vast SRDC area spanning more than 5,860 square kilometres, where there are more than 300 longhouses and two major townships – Sibu Jaya and Selangau Bazaar.

“Therefore, it is imperative that SRDC utilise its resources and manpower efficiently to ensure all areas are well taken care of by the respective zone councillors,” he pointed out.

He assured that SRDC will continue with its community engagement programmes to be always near to the people.

“With this, we will discharge our duty more efficiently as we have be er understanding of the issues and the needs of the people within our jurisdiction,” Sempurai added.

He also said SRDC will continue to monitor the key issues and problems such as li ering and indiscriminate dumping of household waste as well as renovation waste.

“We also need to be more proactive and vigilant to ensure our municipal services remain up to the standard and requirement imposed by the ministry,” he asserted.

He called on all the councillors to work as a team.

He stressed that this was the way forward to keep up with the council’s outstanding achievements like Four Star rating, Chief Minister’s Award and the Good Audit Financial Management score for 2018 under the National Audit Report, among others.

“All these achievements cannot be achieved without team work and dedication from staff and councillors.

“I urge members of the public to give full cooperation to the councillors and to become the council’s ‘ eyes and ears’ so that we can give you efficient and diligent municipal services,” he said.

This is to ensure they perform their duty efficiently and achieve the council’s Balance Score Card (BSC) and target.

Sempurai Petrus Ngelai