UTILITY companies are no longer allowed to hire their own contractors to dig roads and patch it up after laying underground cables in Kuala Lumpur as their work is shoddy.
The task of hiring contractors for the job now falls under the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).
Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said the ministry had received many complaints on potholes appearing on the patched- up stretches of road in the capital city.
He added that the utility companies had been awarding contracts to unscrupulous contractors who were not resurfacing the roads properly after installing the cables, which had caused potholes to appear later.
“Sometimes the contractors even dumped cement into the drains.
“The utility companies now will have to refer to mayor Datuk Seri Ahmad Phesal Talib who will appoint contractors for them,” he said during a press conference after flagging off DBKL’s Humanitarian Aid team to Kuala Krai, Kelantan at Menara DBKL 1 yesterday.
A City Hall source said it had stopped issuing work permits to utility companies for the past two weeks.
He said a meeting was held with the utility companies last week and they were told that representatives from the companies would have to be present during roadworks.
“We will cancel the work permit if we find there are no supervisors at the site when our enforcement officers and technical engineers go for their rounds to monitor the projects,” he said.
Tengku Adnan also said that they would also be relooking at DBKL’s own contractors who were appointed through tenders to perform maintenance work on city roads.
“Some of them are not doing the work they were hired to do. We will look into assigning contractors for certain areas and they will become our eyes in the area. We know Jakarta in Indonesia is using this method,” he said.
On the humanitarian aid, Tengku Adnan said they had sent 120 DBKL staff with 40 vehicles including lorries, water tankers and mobile offices to help in the cleaning works in Kelantan.
He said DBKL has also sent a mobile clinic and ambulances with the team. “After that, they will communicate with the National Security Committee for further instructions.
“We will also set up a collection fund, which will be launched next week, to collect money for flood aftermath needs such as cleaning, addressing health issues and rebuilding the areas that were flooded,” he said, adding they had sent 40 to 50 tonnes of supplies to the flood victims so far.
Meanwhile, on the flash floods occurring in Jalan Ipoh, Ahmad Phesal said they would remove the rocks from Sungai Gombak to help alleviate the rising waters.
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