Thursday November 26, 2009

Big reshuffle for Selangor councils

BY ELAN PERUMAL

THE heads of the engineering department at the 12 local authorities in Selangor have been reshuffled and this is a sign that a big shake-up is on the way.

On Nov 1, all the local authorities were provided with new heads of the engineering department.

This is believed to be only the beginning of an overhaul and more officers are expected to be moved around in the near future.

“This is being done to combat complacency among the top officials who had been holding their posts for as long as 15 to 20 years,” Selangor local government committee chairman Ronnie Liu said.

He added that besides providing new challenges and offering fresh faces for the various councils, the move was expected to help bring out the best in the officers.

He said observations had shown that being at one place for too long would not help in efforts to improve the service and efficiency of the local authorities.

“When you have been too long in one place, there is a tendency for complacency to set in and I believe the new postings will challenge them to move on,” he said.

Liu said all the 12 heads had been moved around as part of a unique rotation system.

He said the ones from the stronger local authorities had been moved to the weaker areas and vice-versa.

“The ones from the stronger councils will be able to impart their knowledge and experience to the weaker ones and those from weaker areas will have to learn to cope with the new challenges.

“In this way, we expect them to improve efficiency and offer ratepayers much-improved services,” he said.

Liu said all heads of the department from the local authorities would be moved around in several stages.

“This change will be done once in every three months until the process is completed,” he said.

Although the Pakatan Rakyat government had announced that it would be carrying out a drastic reshuffle at the local level soon after wresting Selangor in the last general election, Liu said changes had to be made without causing instability.

He said the three-month gap would help to provide stability so that the day-to-day affairs of the local government would not be disrupted.

“We have to be objective and careful so that changes are not made for the sake of change,” he added.

Under the reshuffle exercise, Kuala Selangor District Council engineering director Ahmad Jamzuri Mujani moved to the Hulu Selangor District Council and the Hulu Selangor engineering director Mohd Azda Nordin, replaced Jamzuri in Kuala Selangor.

The rest of the swaps are the Klang Municipal Council and the Kajang Municipal Council; the Selayang Municipal Council and the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council; and Kuala Langat and Sepang.

However, a different method was used for the Shah Alam and Peatling Jaya city councils and the Subang Jaya Municipal Council.

The engineering department director from Shah Alam has been posted to PJ while the one from PJ has gone to Subang Jaya and the one from Subang Jaya has been placed in Shah Alam.

There has been no movement at the Sabak Bernam district since the district does not have a director for its engineering department.

When contacted, Hulu Selangor district council president Tukiman Nail said the idea was good.

He believed the move offered a chance for the engineers to learn new things and use their experience to deal with new situations in new areas.

Shah Alam public relations officer Shahrin Ahmad confirmed that the director from Shah Alam had gone to PJ and the vacancy filled by the engineering director from MPSJ.

He said the movement of the directors was done based on a directive from the state government.

Klang Municipal Council public relations officer Norfiza Mahfuz confirmed the swap between Klang and Kajang but was unable to comment on the change.