Friday October 31, 2008
Make PJ a city of choice
My CouncillorBy JADE CHAN
Full name: Michael Soon Kwai Choy Age: 57 Marital status: Married with two children Career: Started as an audit clerk, then held several executive and senior managerial positions at various multinational companies. Last served as managing director of a technology company. Currently an independent non-executive director and chairman of an audit and corporate governance committee of a public listed company. Zone responsibility: SS7, SS11, SS21, SS22 & SS22A (PJ) Contact: 012-248 2722/ msoonkc@gmail.com
MICHAEL SOON desires to make Petaling Jaya a “city of choice”.
“When (not if) PJ is made a clean, liveable, safe and people-friendly city, people will come and not mind paying a premium for houses here,” said the chartered accountant who has been staying in PJ for the past 40 years.
He feels his passion for hygiene, cleanliness and corporate governance will be useful in the committees he will be sitting on: Infrastructure and Traffic Advi-sory; Health, Legal and Enforce-ment; Audit and Administration, and Sustainable Development.
Soon volunteered to head the Public Hygiene and Sanitation Committee (a subcommittee under Health, Legal & Enforce-ment) to address the issues of dirty toilets and public areas.
Michael Soon Kwai Choy
“The problems stem from lack of enforcement, and the public’s reaction and sense of consciousness,” he said.
“Why do certain people mess up while using the toilets, or patronise a restaurant even after it was temporarily sealed because of cleanliness issues?” he asked.
“Thus the MBPJ has embarked on a clean-up project in SS2 – an iconic landmark for hawkers and restaurants – and to use it as a model for us to improve the rest of PJ.”
Some of the things that have been implemented in SS2 are getting Alam Flora to clean the drains, getting coffee shops to clean up, enforcing the installation of grease traps.
“We’re now in the process of producing a new set of guidelines to uplift the standard of cleanliness at all eating outlets. The guidelines will also apply to all toilets and public places.
“I believe in educating people first, before taking sterner action. There are tougher laws to address serious offenders like by hurting their pockets via fines or closing their outlets.”
On corporate governance, Soon said it was about behaviour and improving the council’s public delivery system.
“To improve work culture, contractors are now not allowed to call councillors to lobby for jobs.
“If contractors are caught harassing councillors, I’d suggest that they be blacklisted.
“To eliminate the rent culture, contractors for small jobs are now not allowed to sell their contracts or subcontract a major part of the work, especially for contracts less than RM20,000.”
To improve the public delivery system, Soon said the MBPJ was considering setting up a Quick Response Team (QRT) to tackle minor repair jobs like potholes, tree trimming and drains, and to revamp its complaints system by monitoring complaints online or via phone calls through a 24-hour call centre.
“People get upset when they don’t know the status of their complaints. With the new system, someone from the QRT has to respond within 24 hours. The complainant will also get the name, contact details and department of the person handling the complaint, as well as a timeframe for the response.
“If the issue is beyond what the QRT can handle and has to be passed on, then the person from the subsequent department has to make sure the complaint is followed through while keeping the complainant updated.”
Soon concluded: “The challenge is to address a culture when transparency and accountability has been lacking, and to provide value- for-money service to the PJ community.”
Make PJ a city of choice
My CouncillorBy JADE CHAN
Full name: Michael Soon Kwai Choy Age: 57 Marital status: Married with two children Career: Started as an audit clerk, then held several executive and senior managerial positions at various multinational companies. Last served as managing director of a technology company. Currently an independent non-executive director and chairman of an audit and corporate governance committee of a public listed company. Zone responsibility: SS7, SS11, SS21, SS22 & SS22A (PJ) Contact: 012-248 2722/ msoonkc@gmail.com
MICHAEL SOON desires to make Petaling Jaya a “city of choice”.
“When (not if) PJ is made a clean, liveable, safe and people-friendly city, people will come and not mind paying a premium for houses here,” said the chartered accountant who has been staying in PJ for the past 40 years.
He feels his passion for hygiene, cleanliness and corporate governance will be useful in the committees he will be sitting on: Infrastructure and Traffic Advi-sory; Health, Legal and Enforce-ment; Audit and Administration, and Sustainable Development.
Soon volunteered to head the Public Hygiene and Sanitation Committee (a subcommittee under Health, Legal & Enforce-ment) to address the issues of dirty toilets and public areas.
Michael Soon Kwai Choy
“The problems stem from lack of enforcement, and the public’s reaction and sense of consciousness,” he said.
“Why do certain people mess up while using the toilets, or patronise a restaurant even after it was temporarily sealed because of cleanliness issues?” he asked.
“Thus the MBPJ has embarked on a clean-up project in SS2 – an iconic landmark for hawkers and restaurants – and to use it as a model for us to improve the rest of PJ.”
Some of the things that have been implemented in SS2 are getting Alam Flora to clean the drains, getting coffee shops to clean up, enforcing the installation of grease traps.
“We’re now in the process of producing a new set of guidelines to uplift the standard of cleanliness at all eating outlets. The guidelines will also apply to all toilets and public places.
“I believe in educating people first, before taking sterner action. There are tougher laws to address serious offenders like by hurting their pockets via fines or closing their outlets.”
On corporate governance, Soon said it was about behaviour and improving the council’s public delivery system.
“To improve work culture, contractors are now not allowed to call councillors to lobby for jobs.
“If contractors are caught harassing councillors, I’d suggest that they be blacklisted.
“To eliminate the rent culture, contractors for small jobs are now not allowed to sell their contracts or subcontract a major part of the work, especially for contracts less than RM20,000.”
To improve the public delivery system, Soon said the MBPJ was considering setting up a Quick Response Team (QRT) to tackle minor repair jobs like potholes, tree trimming and drains, and to revamp its complaints system by monitoring complaints online or via phone calls through a 24-hour call centre.
“People get upset when they don’t know the status of their complaints. With the new system, someone from the QRT has to respond within 24 hours. The complainant will also get the name, contact details and department of the person handling the complaint, as well as a timeframe for the response.
“If the issue is beyond what the QRT can handle and has to be passed on, then the person from the subsequent department has to make sure the complaint is followed through while keeping the complainant updated.”
Soon concluded: “The challenge is to address a culture when transparency and accountability has been lacking, and to provide value- for-money service to the PJ community.”
No comments:
Post a Comment