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Before delivering results Penang Councilors want more allowances!

27 June 2008 - 5:03pm

Before the Councilors can show much results from their work they are demanding more allowances! Incredible! Councilors are not full/time jobs -so those who want to rely on it to survive should perhaps leave the job and let others who afford the time & commitment to take over.  

 

Penang local councillor wants higher allowances
Opalyn Mok

GEORGE TOWN: For more than 10 years now, municipal councillors here have been getting the same allowance -- RM600 a month, and RM50 for each meeting they attend. They now want more.

Penang Island Municipal councillor Zulkifli Mohd Noor said the councillors' allowances should be increased due to the bigger responsibilities and duties expected of councillors now as compared to many years ago.

"Furthermore, this allowance was set by the previous state government and it is not suitable to stick to this same allowance structure in this age and time," he said in his speech at the full council meeting on Friday.

He said the councillors have more on their plate now as they are not only involved in policy making but also in implementation.

"Some of us have to take time off from our professional duties to attend meetings and see to our responsibilities as councillors," he said, adding that the allowance is not enough.

In response, council president Datuk Zainal Rahim Seman said the council will seriously consider this proposal and will put it up to the state government.

Other issues raised at the meeting are:

> a proposal to install another 24 CCTVs especially at school areas on the island as a security feature for students.

> the 24 CCTVs will cost RM4.2mil and should be implemented by year end.

> a proposal to create more bicycle lanes to promote cycling as an environmental friendly mode of transport

> the council will have to look into the possibility of creating more bicycle lanes

> the council will call for open tender soon to reintroduce the free shuttle bus service for the inner city, which is expected to cost the council RM50,000 each month.

> there are 508 abandoned old buildings in which the owners could not be contacted. The council wants them to rehabilitate these rotting buildings.

Comments

27 June 2008 - 7:15pm — candidmen

Ever since taken over from

Ever since taken over from the BN Government, the new Government has not seen to be implemented something new and beneficial to the rakyat! The first thing they had failed is that they are unable to throw to the people's rights to elect the Councillors as they had promised before the election! How can they simply propagate this in their political agenda with intent to hoodwink the voters for supports and then turned down by giving an alibi and blamed the constitution for not allowing them to do so?! Worst still, they were appointing their party candidates to take up double jobs as the YB cum Councillor! How can we allow the increment of salaries when they have two jobs, compared to many jobless people at large, they are much better off in consideration of their duties of mainly involved in meetings and political functions! How much they have committed to the Society and in what manner to rationalize their quantum of service against the salaries they asked for?!

I do not consent to the proposal of their salaries increment particularly at this critical moment of high inflationary rates, amid the financial crisis, the Government ought to seriously take into consideration that the en- grieved rakyat have to be taken care of prior to comforting the Councillors, whom they supposed to have more sense of serving the peoples rather than aiming for a much lucrative job!

28 June 2008 - 3:40pm — saengch

Paying more for Councilor

Paying more for Councilor time may be reasonable. Inflation over the pass decade is large. It is a good principle to close the gap between public office compensation (even if not full time) and private sector (but no need to close the gap completely, because there is the reward of prestige in public office). We want our councillors to be professionals who have trained themselves to be able to do a lot in a short time (time worth more money).

RM2.4mil for 24 CCTV is NOT reasonable. My neighbor installed 3 CCTV last year for RM5k, with line feed and recording capacity to his computer, including installation work and concealed wiring. By extension, he would pay only RM40k for 24 CCTV. That is about 1/100 of the cited cost above.

Maybe these are higher-end CCTV and have wireless connection, but how much more high-end can they be? Was there open tender?

28 June 2008 - 11:04pm — ong

If the Councilors are

If the Councilors are elected then their plea for better allowances could make more sense. When Councilors are appointed-mostly as a `reward' for political contributions then paying them more does not make sense. There isn't anyway to assess their work done. Going by the lack of work (not)done they are not entitled to any allowance hike. Should they go ahead they will attract added notoriety. PR government should take note of this as the public perception of a bunch of political appointees asking for more money without showing their hands will not be positive.

29 June 2008 - 2:36am — saengch

The CCTV was supposed to

The CCTV was supposed to cost RM4.2 mil as reported, not RM2.4mil as I commented.

You are right about the lack of legitimacy of demand from unelected and "closely" selected councillors.