Penang PAC to scrunitise RM66m 'problematic' e-Tanah system
First Published: 7:12pm, Sep 25, 2013
Last Updated: 7:15pm, Sep 25, 2013
GEORGE TOWN (Sept 25): The Penang Legislative Assembly’s Public
Accounts Committee (PAC) intends to dig further into the discrepancies
of the RM66 million e-Tanah application that was listed as being fraught
with implementation issues.
PAC head Wong Hon Wai said a taskforce would be set up soon to
investigate the electronic land administration system that was
implemented as a pilot project in Penang between 2005 and 2007.
Wong said the discrepancies were highlighted by the National Audit Department in the 2011 Auditor-General’s Report for Penang.
According to the report, the system, developed by iLaunch Sdn Bhd, was to be implemented by six departments including the Land and Mines Office, its five district land offices and district offices.
The system comprised 85 "transactions" featuring nine modules –
registration, development, disposal, acquisition, revenue, enforcement,
auction, strata titles and permision or approval of titles, mortgages or
lease.
However, Wong said only four (revenue, registration, permission and strata titles) out of the nine modules were put in place properly while the rest is handled manually by the department officers.
"We want to get investigate this matter because the National Audit Department found that the overall implementation was less than satisfactory. This is a federal project costing RM66 million that would involve all five districts and land offices.
"It was supposed to be a comprehensive application that would enable people to carry out land matters online but it is not fully applicable. Therefore, we will delve into this to find out the problems.
"We need to see if there have been leakages in the procurement and awarding of contracts.
"This is part of our 'competency, accountability and transparency' motto where integrity, economy, effectiveness and efficiency are upheld in Penang. This was also important because we are the first state to adopt this programme," he said.
In the Auditor-General’s Report, an audit between May and August in 2011, found that reminders were not issued to landowners with arrears; the user manual was not updated and the management of the user IDs and passwords was not according to the guidelines.
He told a press conference that PAC would invite the software developers and officers from the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry to give their input before the report is drawn up for debate in the Penang legislative assembly.
Wong added that following the debate by backbenchers in November, solutions are expected to be discussed and tendered to the ministry and implementing agencies.
The former Housing, Town and Country Planning committee chairman said PAC would also hold regular meetings to enable more discussions on issues involving the effectiveness and efficiency of the state government and bodies.
"The PAC is the most important committee among the other legislative assembly teams because it studies the accounts of the state government and its subsidiaries, and statutory bodies.
"We plan to revamp PAC to be more effective than before,” said the Air Itam assemblyman.
The PAC comprised backbenchers from Umno (four), PKR (two), DAP (two) and PAS (one), all of whom attended the committee’s first meeting today.
The meeting was also joined by Penang Land and Mines Department
director Datuk Ariffin Awang, and Seberang Perai Selatan and Utara
district officers Rohani Hassan and Saodah Nawawi, respectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment