Pengguna perihatin

Saturday October 31, 2009

PETALING JAYA: Certified workshops should be allowed to inspect vehicles aged 15 years and above, said Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations secretary-general Muhammad Shaani Abdullah.

He said Puspakom would not be able to cope with the number of vehicles if it had to conduct inspections on these cars.

“Currently, commercial vehicles make up only 10% of the vehicle population but owners are already spending long hours waiting for the inspections to be done.

“If Puspakom is going to inspect cars aged 15 years or older, there will be an additional 20% to 30% of the total vehicle population that needs to be checked.

“Puspakom will be unable to cope with this and will definitely have to outsource it to certified workshops,” he said.

On the prohibition of used automotive parts and components from June 2011, Muhammad Shaani said the Government must ensure that all spare parts sold in the country complied with international standard.

“It will not be feasible to impose such a ban if we do not have local mandatory standards to ensure that consumers get to buy materials with quality.

“Otherwise, they might have to waste more money repairing their vehicles,” he said.

2009/10/30

DATUK PAUL SELVARAJ, Consumer Research and Resource Centre Kuala Lumpur

JUST last month, the minister dealing with consumer issues issued a strong statement that the Competition Policy or Fair Trade Policy would be tabled in Parliamentthat month.

He emphasised that the act would protect consumers against businesses that manipulated the prices of goods. To date, there has been no further news on the act.

Then, contradicting his earlier statement in support of competition and fair trade, the minister said last week that liberalising the sugar trade would cause problems for local sugar-based industries.

Well, the whole idea of liberalising the market is to allow more competitors to break the power of the holders of approved permits, who can and do manipulate prices.

The issue is not that more competitors would reduce supply; rather it is that the price of sugar is controlled.

In liberalising the market, the government should provide a safety net for the marginalised through food coupons or other forms of support; the rest of the consumers will have to learn to adapt to the market.

In the short term, prices may go up because of crop failure in some key sugar producing countries.

Currently, the government spends RM720 million on sugar subsidies.

After ensuring the poor get the support, the government will need to educate consumers to adapt to the market; that might simply mean consuming less sugar.

For the agricultural and food sector as a whole, the supply chain needs to be liberalised to prevent importers, wholesalers and other traders from colluding and manipulating prices to the detriment of other businessmen -- especially small businessmen who may otherwise be left out either because they simply lack the connections or because they are not part of the collusion -- as well as consumers. In the long term, a competitive market benefits society as a whole.

Then the minister said if petrol stations are allowed to charge prices below the ceiling price set by the government, there would be inflation. When there is competition and competition forces prices down; there is less, not more inflation.

The beneficiaries are the consumers. The ceiling price ensures, again through government subsidies, that prices do not go above the price fixed by the government.

In the long term, for a viable and sustainable economy, three significant factors are important.

Firstly, the market has to be liberalised at every level (imports, wholesale trade and retail trade) so that competition and not price-fixing is the primary vehicle for price determination.

Secondly, there should be a social safety net for the poor and marginalised so that they are not left out and society is able to sustain them through some form of food and basic support system.


Thirdly, consumers must learn to change their mindset and their lifestyle to reflect market realities.

The time when consumers expect the government to keep prices low through increasing subsidy schemes is over. They have to take personal responsibility over their lifestyle and consumer behaviour.

Finally, in enhancing consumer protection and consumer welfare in Malaysia, a minister more committed to consumer issues also helps.

Labels: CRRC, FOMCA, Paul Selvaraj

Piarapakaran Subramaniam
Oct 29, 09
4:37pm
I refer to the Malaysiakini report PM slashes spending in Budget 2010.

The world community condemns the 'divide and rule' policy used by the colonial powers. However, our water and energy sectors are still being managed in such manner. Both sectors are managed by many parties with minimal integration except for meetings and seminars.

The Water and Energy Consumer Association of Malaysia (Wecam) sees both water and energy as basic needs of the people to survive and they eventually will becomes a national security issue.

On these consumer rights, we urge the federal and state governments to put their differences aside and protect the rakyat. We also urge that both the sectors are to be integrated and managed throughout their life cycles.

The water sector needs to ensure that water catchment areas are protected. State governments should gazette these areas as permanent reserves. There are also issues highlighted by the latest Auditor-General's report on the quality and pricing of water.

In addition to that, wastewater management is still below performance and underutilised. The country's water demand management is also of immediate concern as there are organisations that are pushing for alternative resources such as groundwater with many risky elements overlooked.

The energy sector is also not spared from lack of implementation while Malaysia is facing depleting energy resources. Furthermore, we are still on the learning curve for alternative energy. Energy efficiency - which is a core part of energy management - has not yet been achieved.

The government also made a 'quick policy' on nuclear energy as an option. Besides this, in a recent study conducted by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), they omitted the transportation sector's energy usage. This again proves fragments implementation.

Overall, we did request a balancing fund to mitigate immediate energy resources price fluctuations. This is to ensure there is no immediate fluctuation of energy prices in all sectors to prevent burdening the consumers.

The new Green Technology sector will definitely be challenged to look at both these sectors as the improvement planned for them are placed in the recent National Green Technology Policy release.

Before the country steps forward to achieve Vision 2020, fundamental issues must be solved and we need to build both the energy and water sectors on solid foundation.

In many communications, meeting, seminars, reports and memorandums, we together with Fomca have raised many issues and solutions. We will continue to give constructive views with a technical background to push for changes and enhancement.

Working together does not make any of us less, it only builds us up further. We hope for a strong restructuring of both the water and energy sector to improve implementation efficiency. Merging is definitely an option.

The writer is secretary-general, Water and Energy Consumer Association of Malaysia.

Labels: FOMCA, Piara, WICAM

Tuesday October 27, 2009
By IZWAN IDRIS and SHARIDAN M. ALI

PETALING JAYA: The Government needs to be more “open” on issues related to its procurement policy, urged two non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“As it is now, there is more suspicion than trust in the system,” Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (Fomca) secretary-general Muhammad Shaani Abdullah said in a response to Starprobe’s articles published yesterday.

This, he said, was due to the lack of transparency on how most of the public contracts were awarded, as well as lack of publicly available information about the project status.

“The Government needs to do more in sharing information with the public,” Shaani said, adding that this could be achieved through the media and publishing such information on government websites.

The latest Auditor-General’s report and Starprobe findings published yesterday revealed that the Government could be losing billions of ringgit every year through excessive payments made for projects and procurements from private contractors.

Transparency International Malaysia (TI Malaysia) secretary-general Dr Loi Kheng Min said putting a proper procurement system would help curb corrupt practices, which had been long-associated with government contracts.

He said that the effectiveness of existing systems, like e-Perolehan and e-Tender should be enhanced, while perennial issues like non-compliance to procedures should be dealt with.

TI Malaysia, a globally-linked anti-graft independent body, has also come up with its own procurement guide called Integrity Pact.

Recent adopters of this Integrity Pact include Pos Malaysia Bhd.

Loi said the Integrity Pact programme was designed to prevent corruption, bribes and any other unethical practices.

Meanwhile, a government officer met by the Starprobe team at National Asset and Facility Management Convention 2009 yesterday said it was definitely a waste to lose billions of ringgit every year through excessive payments for contracts and procurements.

“I think the current Government will definitely do something to curb this problem.

“And the real cost of contract for any projects should be audited to avoid any ‘hidden’ charges with vested interests.

“Nobody in the right mind would let this happen and if unnecessary cost or expenditure is revealed, such as the acquisition of the over RM40,000 laptop, somebody should be held responsible,” said the officer, who declined to be named.

A businessman at the convention yesterday also lauded the effort to probe such issues as it involved taxpayers’ money.

“Although some contracts are through open tender, a background check on the company and unnecessary costs of the project is very important to avoid this kind of wastage.

“Maybe a third independent party should be roped in to do the audit,” he said.

Labels: FOMCA, Sha'ani, Shaani