'We'll enforce the law … eventually'

20/08/2000 The Sun By R.Nadeswaran

About eight months ago, The Sun carried an investigation into moneylending activities. Although there is something called the Moneylenders Act. The trade we discovered, was unregulated and interest as high as 300% was being imposed.

Besides borrowers were compelled to surrender their Automated Teller Cards and their PINs to moneylenders who would then withdraw the amount due every month from the bank accounts.

For reasons better know to them the officers at the Ministry of Housing and Local Government which enforces the law refused to act on these and a variety of other breaches of the law.

A month later, its minister, Datuk Ong Ka Ting called a press conference to admit that there were insufficient provisions in the law, and said that the police, "have agreed to take action" against errant moneylenders.

Our reporter, Humayun Kabir took all the relevant documents to the police headquarters sometime in March and that was the last we heard.

Each time the reporter sought to check the progress of the police investigations he was told: "We are busy and have not started investigations."

Therefore, when pronouncements are made by the same ministry wanting to amend the Housing Developers Act, may see it as a joke.

Even when existing provisions are hardly enforced, what purpose will the amendments serve if enforcement is lacking?

For example, one of the basic provisions in the Act is a requirement that developers display prominently their previous year's audited statement of accounts in their offices.

Walk into most developers' offices and you'll find that what is being displayed are not the statement of accounts but portraits of their company directors or pictures showing the directors shaking hands with VIPs, including cabinet ministers.

It is an unwritten rule among enforcement officers of the Ministry of Housing and Local Government that those who breach this clause should only be "given a warning".

So, it starts with an Amaran, followed by a Peringatan, then a Peringatan Akhir and finally and Amaran Terakhir.

This whole process could take years. But all this seems to be only for the files of the officers to show that they have done their job - not for any other reasons. Prosecution is the last thing on their minds.

To date, not a single developer has been prosecuted for not displaying their financial statement and this is reflective of the state of affairs of the industry.

Hundreds, if not thousands, have lost their life-savings and hard-earned money to errant developers and are at a loss as to how to get back their money.

"It is not under our jurisdiction, " says the Housing Ministry. "Try Bank Negara".

Bank Negara says that it regulates the conduct of financial institutions.

Is it a case of cheating? If it is, why not the police?

"We can accept the report but then we can't do anything because it is a civil matter," says the police officer.

So, what recourse has the buyers when he sees no sign of his dream house?

None.

This is the issue that has to be addressed by the Ministry instead of making all kinds of promises of wanting to " amend the laws to protect house buyers".

We agree that some issue like CF and basic amenities come under the purview of different departments but surely there should be some form of legislation protecting buyers when projects are abandoned or when developers abscond to Taiwan with the money.

It is no use singing the same tune - "we will change the laws" - when week after week, we hear sob stories of house buyers being cheated or short-changed.

If something is not done, and done fast, we may as well change the name of the ministry to the Ministry for Housing Developers.