Selangor Ratepayers Should Not Be Forced To Pay More For The Ineptitude Of The Local Government

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THE Selangor government’s rate hikes across the board are forcing the people to pay more for inefficient and sloppy municipal services.
The ratepayers do not mind if increased payments are for the better upkeep of the neighbourhoods and for rendering good municipal services but alas, this is not the case.
In the last 20 years there has been steep drop in the quality of municipal services rendered even in upscale residential areas let alone the ordinary ones.
Local authorities are mandated to provide a wide range of services from clearing drains, rubbish and litter collection, grass-cutting, resurfacing roads and pruning trees to maintaining children’s playgrounds, parks, community halls, fields, car parks, markets and public areas.
Although firms like the KDEB Waste Management are rendering a reasonably good services, the same cannot be said of the individual contractors hired by the city and district councils who are both incompetent and have a couldn’t-care-less attitude.
A lot of residential, industrial and commercial properties do not pay a single sen as rates. Nowadays it is worse with many foreigners operating business and creating settlements.
(Image: Selangor Journal)Mountains of garbage are cleared from these places for free. Land leases that had expired decades ago have not been renewed and the lease holders do pay the quit rent.
The Selangor government should not squeeze the honest ratepayers for more money but ensure that the net for collection of rates and quit rent, licences, permits and other payments is cast wide and that everyone in Selangor should be paying in one way or another to enjoy the municipal facilities of a developed state.
A new system of temporary licences and permits should be issued to prevent graft by officials who, by accepting bribes, by-pass what should go to the government coffers.
Rates and quit rents in Selangor are bound to go up regularly due to increased costs brought about by inefficiency, incompetency and corruption. All these are unfair to the rate payers who are taxed more and more.
A census of all properties, land or houses, should be done every five years and no area in Selangor should be left uncovered.
With computerisation of the state administration there should be no excuses. Selangor’s employees in local authorities should be tasked to do the census. If there is not enough manpower, as is often cited as an excuse, then university and college students during their holiday period could recruited to do the survey and census.
The problems should not be allowed to snowball without action being taken. Mayors and other senior staff should be very knowledgeable about local government issues and needs and not add to the incompetency all around.
Many mayors are appointed as a pre-retirement benefit or golden handshake. It is time to re-structure the local government administration, workforce and finances to make it more democratic and viable without holding the ratepayers ransom.
Many of these problems could be eradicated if Selangor had local polls to elect competent councillors and Village Development Security Councils (JKKK) members.
However, the topic of local government election is anathema to a sizeable number of self-seeking myopic politicians and leaders who fear the unknown when many nations, even totalitarian ones, have a system of local elections.
Since Selangor is a developed state, cleanliness and a good local administration governance should be prioritised.
However, Selangor is possibly the dirtiest state in the country due to its haphazard development and equally haphazard municipal administration.
Even Selangor ruler HRH Sultan Sharafuddin was aghast at the insanitary conditions in Klang and this was reported in the media.
(Image: Bernama)The State exco for local government should be blamed for this mess as there is hardly any monitoring of the situation on the ground.
The system of appointing contractors by the municipal authorities should be stopped as they are the ones creating the mess. This system is corrupted to the core as the contractors are hardly monitored or held accountable for their shoddy and sloppy work.
Larger, more responsible firms like the KDEB should be given the job of maintaining public spaces. These are the jobs which, if shoddily done, paints the local administration in a negative light.
Whenever there is an ‘operasi’ by the Immigration Department all the contractors’ workers abscond and may not re-surface for the next few days. A large firm like KDEB connected to the state government can ensure the availability of workers with legal permits.
Despite pleas there is no waste separation scheme and recycling is not done optimally. The state administration is more keen on incinerators! Industrial estates and SME areas too are neglected with insanitary surroundings and inadequately maintained infrastructure.
Meanwhile, roads in Selangor are in poor condition unlike before when Barisan Nasional was in power, which often saw even good roads being repaved during election season.
Nowadays most of the roads are bare and rough to drive on. Faulty streetlights are another dangerous problem for road users.
The local government exco should act against TNB and TM for not taking care of their assets. These days it is easy to find dangling cabled, tilted poles and various other eyesores dotting the landscape.
All these give a negative picture of the local environment and residents who value good maintenance and beautiful surroundings,
Ratepayers do not mind paying more if their surrounding are spick and span and municipal tasks are done effectively.
Selangor has lost its way in managing the local government of developed state. Local government needs to be transformed if Selangor is going to be a state that its residents can proudly call home. 
V. Thomas is a Focus Malaysia viewer.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.
- Focus Malaysia.

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