Press Statement By Chong Chieng Jen:
Under the Perikatan Nasional Kerajaan Gagal, not only the Healthcare system of our country is at the brink of breaking down but some over-the-counter services of the Government departments are also at the brink of breaking down.
For the past few months, to the great inconvenience to the people, the LHDN licencing department and the Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan (JPJ) have been using the appointment system. To make matter worse, the LHDN limits 100 trade licence renewal/new licence applications per day. Trade licences had to be renewed yearly. With such quota of 100 applications for renewal or new trade licences per day, there is only a maximum 25,000 trade licences renewal / new licence applications per year for the whole of Kuching. That is grossly insufficient.
As a result, businesses could hardly get their trade licences renewed and many could not get their road taxes paid. Many of those who could get things done, got them done with extra costs.
It seems that the users must now pay extra money to get their appointment dates, otherwise, they will have to wait forever.
At State Government level, the Lands and Surveys and the Immigration Department also adopted such practices. As a result, land transactions were delayed for weeks and months (most of these transactions have very strict time schedules) and foreign workers’ permits applications and extensions delayed.
All these have severe economic costs to businesses. It is not only causing great inconvenience to the people but also great economic costs. That is also the reason why Sarawak is one of the worst GDP negative growth states in Sarawak.
Given that there is the 50% workforce restrictions, all these government departments should not continue with its 8 to 5 work hour schedule.
The DAP Sarawak suggests that these department’s over-the-counter service hours should be lengthened, from 8:00 am to 8:00 p.m. Since there is a 50% restriction of workforce at any one time, then divide them into 2 shifts of 6 working hour a day. In order to maximise the service hour for the public and clear all the current backlogs, the offices should not be closed for lunch or dinner but the workers may take turn for a short ½ break during their shifts.
By lengthening the time for the over-the-counter service is the only way now to facilitate the provision of such services to the people and help to uplift our State’s economy. Otherwise, with all these very business-relevant services working at less than 50% capacity, we will be very slow in our economic recovery.
11-8-2021
Chong Chieng Jen
DAP Sarawak Chairman
