Assign fair share of accountability to all parties

Assign fair share of accountability to all parties

06/07/2004 The Star

I READ with interest the proposal by our Prime Minister to do away with CFs, and to have the completion of houses certified by professionals instead. It is a very good proposal, deserving consideration by all. It takes care of the following issues which have been dogging the housing industry:

1. DELAYS in obtaining CFs;

2. BUREAUCRACY, corruption and abuse; and

3. SHODDY workmanship

However, there are some related issues that need to be addressed at the same time. This is necessary so that the proposal for professionals to certify completion will ensure that all parties involved are assigned their share of authority, responsibility and accountability.

Firstly, professionals such as consultant architects and engineers must be given clear roles and responsibilities and must be paid adequately to carry such responsibilities. At present, there is so much undercutting among such professionals that developers often squeeze them, particularly the consultant engineers, so much so that they are forced to take on too many jobs, and cut back to minimum manpower operations.

In many cases they hardly supervise the projects, although the regulations require them to certify that they did.

Engineers are liable for their designs, for life. But by not supervising projects adequately, they indirectly contribute to shoddy work, and a host of problems for themselves and others. At the end of the day, many professionals even have difficulty collecting their pitiful dues from the developers.

On the other hand, developers, having collected their money from the buyers, have the upper hand, and have no accountability whatsoever beyond the defect liability period.

The respective professional bodies have their own scale of fees, for various categories of projects, but this is rarely followed, with the possible exception of some government projects.

There should be strict enforcement of the scale of fees for professional consultants, if necessary the fees should be paid by the developers through the professional bodies, as is currently done for professional surveyors.

The professionals must then be made accountable for their role.

Secondly, having assigned appropriate roles to the professionals, the authorities should confine themselves to procedural issues:

MAKING sure developers of projects assign the right professionals;

ENSURING the submission of plans and designs are duly certified by the professionals;

KEEPING track of procedural progress of projects through key milestones;

CARRYING out spot checks to ensure the professionals are following the procedures of supervision and record keeping; and

COMPILING statistics on errant professionals to be reported to the appropriate professional regulatory bodies such as Lembaga Akitek Malaysia or Lembaga Jurutera Malaysia.

Thirdly, the professional regulatory bodies should formulate policies and procedures for the following:

CODE of practice;

DISCIPLINARY procedures;

PROFESSIONAL liability insurance schemes; and

PROFESSIONAL checker system

In this way, the roles of the professionals, their respective regulating bodies, the local authorities and the developers will have their respective and complementing roles clarified, and this will lead to greater transparency and accountability. The housebuyer will have greater protection against unscrupulous developers, errant professionals and corrupt officials.

DN,
Kuala Lumpur.
(via e-mail)