The Consumers Association of Subang and Shah Alam Selangor (Cassa) calls upon the housing and local government ministry to initiate a plan of action to audit, review and implement a more transparent, accountable and ‘consumer friendly’ system in its outsourcing of all parking services in the country.

The present system is an abuse and lopsided serving only the interest of politically-connected outsourced companies.

In many areas, the format and procedure of operations violates the very by-laws upon which it is supposed to operate. Among the serious alleged violations and abuse are the following:

Do the by-laws and contracts say that for each 15 parking bays there should be one machine? If this is so, why is there today only one machine for every thirty parking bays?

Are the machines being calibrated every year and their calibration supervised and confirmed by independent third parties?

Are the machines operating on legally gazetted roads? And is this procedure consistent in all local council jurisdictions nationwide?

Why is the government being ‘shortchanged’ when payments for summons issued for parking violations are given to outsourced parking operators? In some jurisdiction this is on a 50-50 basis while in others, it is on a 70-30 basis?

It is our contention that all penalty payments must go to the government. It is revenue for the government.

The government should also explain why the contractual agreements for these concessions start only on the day of their operation on the ground and not on attestation of the said contracts?

There are allegations of abuse when these parking contracts signed are immediately not launched but allowed to only ‘as and when’ the said operators decide to start – this sometimes taking several years!

It is therefore pertinent that an immediate accountable review be initiated by the housing and local government ministry.

It is pertinent that impartial and independent members of civil society be invited to sit on all review committees to ascertain that transparency and accountability is the hallmark of this exercise.