SEGAMBUT MP Hannah Yeoh is spot on when she reminded the Chief Secretary to the Government to set his priorities right by not being over-zealous in clamping down on quarters who pour cold water on efforts to empower Bahasa Melayu but to also to pay heed to other pressing issues such as enhancing the Government’s delivery system of basic services.
At a time when Malaysians are coping with significant inflationary pressures, the very least the Government could have done is to reduce administrative bureaucracy that is confronting taxpayers, she said.
Despite the Road Transport Department (JPJ) being one of the biggest revenue churner of the Government’s coffers, Yeoh lamented that it is a daily norm to witness long queues at JPJ branches in the Klang Valley.
“The public spends hours queuing up for various transactions at the JPJ branch offices even as the road tax renewal system is now available online and to be delivered directly to consumers,” she observed.
“An agency under the Transport Ministry, JPJ rakes in an estimated RM450 mil in revenue annually.”
To illustrate her points, Yeoh had personally visited the Bandar Menjalara branch in the vicinity of her Segambut constituency to see for herself the long queue that stretched to the back alley of the branch which is located in a shop lot.
In this regard, Yeoh proposed that a portion of the hefty revenue is set aside to increase existing facility, open more counters as well as to increase the number of branch offices within the Klang Valley to meet the need of the ever rising number of consumers.
At the moment, there are only four JPJ branch offices in Kuala Lumpur (Wangsa Maju, Bandar Sri Permaisuri, Bandar Menjalara and a Mini JPJ UTC office in Pudu Sentral) while there are seven branch offices spread across Selangor.
Current problems that are disrupting services include the Percetakan Nasional printers, which are always faulty (to print the Malaysian Driving License, Competent Driving License and Probationary Driving License) and the ‘network down’ issue due to instable internet/bandwidth line (provided by MAMPU or the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit).
“I urge the Transport Minister to swiftly act on this if he’s truly concerned with the well-being of consumers and the officers housed at the JPJ office branches,” Yeoh pointed out.
“As an agency that collects such a high amount of daily revenue, it is inappropriate to expect the people to spend such a long time in the waiting line.” – June 3, 2022
