Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: The Selangor state government will not approve the Petaling Jaya City Council’s (MBPJ) proposal to pay up to three months’ bonus to its staff.

The state government is seeking an explanation on the proposed payout which it has deemed as “excessive”.

This is because it was reported that of the council’s 1,409 staff, a total of 1,340 are said to have qualified for the three-month payout.

Acting mayor Puasa Md Taib will be summoned to face Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali and other executive councillors at the weekly exco meeting tomorrow to explain the proposal.

According to Selangor government sources, Puasa will be asked to explain the three-month payout when the state government only approved one and a half months.

When contacted by The Edge Financial Daily yesterday, Azmin confirmed the decision.

In a brief text, he said he is in Sarawak and will seek an explanation from the council upon his return.

At last Friday’s full board meeting, MBPJ councillors had voted 12-7 for the bonus payout, as well as a RM500 increase in allowances for councillors and assistant councillors who are currently paid RM1,500 a month.

Cynthia Gabriel, who represents the non-governmental organisation block of the MBPJ’s 19 councillors, said she had voted against the bonus payout and increment for a number of reasons.

“It is troubling for me as these are public funds and we should be able to justify this payout to the ratepayers.

“Furthermore the council’s performance can still be improved [upon] as our public delivery is still wanting,” said the co-founder of the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4).

“There was no consensus on this decision. It was just a majority decision,” she said, stressing that MBPJ had declared a deficit budget in 2014.

The entire PAS and PKR block voted for while DAP and NGO councillors voted against the bonus at the full board meeting.

Council directors and heads of department had to leave the meeting room when the votes were called, so as to avoid accusations of conflict of interest.

The proposal mooted by the finance committee was that those who scored over 80% be paid three months’ bonus, while those who scored between 40% and 80% would receive a month’s bonus.

“Those who scored under 40% would only receive a flat payout of RM1,000. This is because there were concerns that these underperformers would be further demoralised,” said Gabriel.

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 3, 2015.

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