Government bodies need to acknowledge and act on public complaints

WHERE can ordinary rakyat seek redress when aggrieved by unresponsive government servants?

The following is an account of my recent unhappy encounters with Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and Public Complaints Bureau (BPA).

I sent a letter to DBKL, both via e-mail and by hand, to protest about the proposed increase in the assessment value of my property. Because DBKL did not set up the auto-reply — as they should — to acknowledge receipt, I took the trouble to deliver the letter to them by hand.

I was surprised that DBKL did not call me for any hearing, when many of my neighbours were. I contacted DBKL to enquire, but in spite of repeated e-mails, DBKL did not respond.

Disgruntled, I filed an online complaint with BPA on Feb 7, for which I received an e-mail from an officer on Feb 12 acknowledging receipt.

I did not hear from anyone for a week after that, so I e-mailed the officer to ask about the progress of her investigation. There was no reply. I re-sent the enquiry almost every week after that. To-date, there is still no reply. Meanwhile, I have tried checking the BPA website for the status report of my case, but to no avail.

When I last checked the website (on March 3, one month after I filed the complaint), the case is stated as “Selesai” (Solved)!

This is outrageous! How could the case be deemed solved when I have heard nothing from both BPA and DBKL?

Outraged,TAMAN DESA AMAN

The Star Online