Have Our Leaders Stopped Caring About Basic Services?
It’s high time the government prioritizes funds for basic services.
The government must ensure that sufficient funds are allocated towards the maintenance and improvement of basic services.
Poor Level Of Maintenance Of Basic Services
One serious, widespread problem throughout Malaysia is the lack of funding for the maintenance and improvement of basic services at the level of state as well as local governments.
This leads to a lack of sufficient wages, workers as well as tools to carry out such maintenance work as well as routine checks.
As a result, there are serious, consistent problems in everyday basic services that remain unaddressed and pose safety risks to the people.
Such problems include non-functioning street lights, faulty electrical systems, poor upkeep of buildings and public property, lack of routine road sweeping as well as drain cleaning, lack of clearing and monitoring of illegal garbage dumpsites, and so on.
Some of these issues need to be resolved as soon as possible because they threaten the safety and health of the public.
Unfortunately, the local authorities only take action after a very long time or after receiving many, repeated complaints from members of the public.
This gives a negative view of government services in general, especially if accidents occur due to unresolved, serious problems with these basic services. This ultimately affects voters’ support for the government.
Important Measures For Acquiring Sufficient Funds For Basic Services
There are a few steps that the government needs to take at all levels to be able to effectively allocate sufficient funds towards the consistent maintenance and improvement of basic services throughout the country, such as:
- Eradicating Corruption
The government must act decisively and strictly in eradicating corrupt practices, such as patronage, rent-seeking, cronyism, nepotism, etc, that have plagued our country for too long and have cost the government a huge amount of funds.
One important measure that must be taken is to establish a stringent institutional check and balance system with independent oversight institutions in each state, towards the awarding of contracts by the local governments to companies.
These include private companies as well as GLCs (Government-Linked Companies) and their subsidiaries.
For each state, the auditing process as part of this check and balance system must be conducted by a committee that is independent of the Menteri Besar (the head of the state government) as well as from the executive branch of the state government.
This is to ensure that the awarding of contracts to companies in order to carry out basic services isn’t done in order for the local politicians and bureaucrats to reap profits through corrupt practices.
It’s also to ensure that the basic services carried out by those particular companies are of good quality, such that the ratepayers get good value for their money.
Additionally, this check and balance system must also be applied to the alienation of land resources by the state governments to companies for various projects.
This is crucial to not only deter any form of corruption but to also ensure that the money gained from such transactions goes into the public coffers, instead of the pockets of bureaucrats and politicians as kickbacks.
With these crucial measures, the local and state governments will therefore have more funds that can be allocated towards maintaining and improving basic services.
2. Prioritizing Funds Toward Maintaining And Improving Basic Services
In general, government funds should be prioritized more towards consistent maintenance and improvement of basic services throughout the country, instead of towards other projects, such as those that are commercial and tourism-related.
While I understand that tourism is a main revenue source for our country, nevertheless, it should not take precedence in terms of government funding over the quality of our basic services upon which the people’s safety and wellbeing depend.
The Government Will Have More Money To Spend On Things That Truly Matter
With the above measures, all the state as well as local governments throughout the country will be able to allocate more funds towards hiring more workers, paying an adequate level of wages, and acquiring the sufficient amount of necessary tools and equipment.
This will then enable these state and local governments to effectively carry out maintenance, upkeep, as well as routine checks towards basic services in their respective areas.
Therefore, as a concerned and responsible government, the government must take measures such as the above to ensure that sufficient funds are allocated and prioritized towards consistent maintenance and improvement of basic services throughout the country.
Such measures will definitely help in ensuring the safety and well-being of the people.
Originally published at http://reformthesystem0.wordpress.com.
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