CIVIL SERVANT FLATS FINALLY RENOVATED

RENOVATION…..Edward inspecting one of the flats under renovation in Inanam.

THE CIVIL servant flats are finally being renovated by the JKR and will be due for completion in April next year. The buildings in Inanam consisting of two blocks of flats/apartment are for the use of the civil servants as their family quarters.

This is after the DAP had made many calls and request to JKR for the building to be made good and safe for the people who stay here. The buildings are in a very poor stage and in need of major immediate repair to its concrete structure, windows and doors, painting work, partitions, all piping work and external wall painting.

Edward Ewol Mujie, the Sabah DAP Vice Chairman took a visit to the Inanam civil servant flats and found that the repair and renovation work had started. The work is in well progress and workers are busy repairing the building. The windows are being replaced and the old doors taken down.

Edward said this will provide the civil servants with a better living condition and a comfortable home. It was a shame to leave the buildings unattended to and just let to rot. These are the government buildings and must be taken care of. He said once these units are fully repaired, the government then can move their servant back to occupy and this can save the government a huge sum of money in renting houses else way for the civil servants.

The servant quarters in Tanjong Aru Beach when being all demolished to make way for a development project to take place, the government had suffered in paying huge sum to provide housing for the division one government staffs. The place is left abandon until today and is already overgrown with trees and grass bushes. What is the logic behind this, and it is a case of bad decision and administration by the people who had approved this project.

Edward said the government should be very careful in managing the government properties, especially now those building are left without any maintenance and repair. We cannot leave these building to fall beyond repair, then demolition is the only choice.

We had seen many good examples in Sabah that government building were not built to last and their life spans are very short. The last alternative is demolition, and money is wasted down the drains. If these government buildings were constantly maintained and taken careoff, their life spans will increase.

He cited the KK town central library building and the Archive building, both of these building if taken care off well, there would not face the fate of being declare as unsafe and have to be demolished to make way for a new building. The already demolished QEH 8-storey was one of the typical examples.

The JKR must be seen to be more alert and frequent in checking on all these government buildings at all times. We cannot afford to have government building being knocked off and condemned every now and then. The rebuilding will cost the government huge sum of tax-payers’ money.