Datuk Bandar's remarks unfathomable

NST 25/04/2006

I REFER to "Red faces at City Hall over partial sealing of building" (NST, April 21).

It was reported that Kuala Lumpur Datuk Bandar Datuk Ruslin Hasan was visibly surprised at the court order for a writ of seizure and sale for its failure to settle the RM500,910 in damages the court had awarded to a child.

This is a clear case of the "little Napoleons" Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi referred to recently when describing delay in action or thwarting action by some civil servants.

The Datuk Bandar expressed "shock such a thing can happen". Yet the plaintiff’s lawyers were made to wait for two hours at his office, only to be informed later the mayor was unable to meet them.

His excuse was that the failure of the appointed insurance company to attend court resulted in their receiving "the judgment in default for not attending the case"; that City Hall was not aware of the details of the case. (Isn’t there a legal department in City Hall?)

Ruslin said, "We are a government agency, and would have been proactive on any court order." Ah yes, after the fact.

Finally, City Hall will set up a "domestic inquiry to investigate who was responsible for the slip up".

Come on, Datuk Bandar, who are you kidding?

The money to be paid as compensation comes from us ratepayers.

ANZANI
Kuala Lumpur