All Putrajaya buildings have CFs, says Samsudin
16/04/2007 NST

PUTRAJAYA: All buildings here were issued certificates of fitness (CFs), contrary to claims that some government departments moved in before they were issued.

Tan Sri Samsudin Osman, president of the city’s local authority, Putrajaya Corporation, said yesterday the buildings would not be occupied if a CF had not been issued.

He said, however, when some clients were eager to move in quickly, temporary certificates of fitness (TCFs) were issued.

"(TCFs were issued) only if there were non-critical areas that were not yet ready and so long as work to repair those items was undertaken."

One example was when the Immigration Department moved here in 2004.
"Back then, a few buildings were issued TCFs but we ensured that they completed all the critical repairs before the proper CFs were issued."

He was commenting on claims by sources in various government agencies and the Fire and Rescue Department that some buildings in the administrative capital did not have CFs.

These claims arose following two recent incidents here — the landslide on March 22 in Precinct 9, leading to the evacuation of more than 1,000 residents of government apartments, and last Wednesday’s flooding of the Immigration Department headquarters because of a burst pipe.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had expressed shock and disappointment that both incidents could have taken place in a well-planned city like Putrajaya.

Samsudin said it was pointless to get into a "blame game" over the Immigration building incident. "It’s counterproductive to blame this or that person because many parties are involved in the construction of a building and in issuing CFs. It is never just one party."