Maintenance of Putrajaya govt quarters not efficient or effective, audit report shows

The management of maintenance, repair and upgrading works for government quarters in Putrajaya under the Property Management Division (BPH) of the Prime Minister’s Department has not been implemented efficiently and effectively, according to the Auditor-General’s Report (LKAN) Year 2019, Series 2.

The audit report revealed weaknesses in the monitoring and management of damage complaints as well as irregularities in the repairing and upgrading of vacant units.

“This has caused delays in handing over the repaired quarters to the Quarters Unit to be offered to new occupants,” read the report released today.

The audit involved an assessment of the management of maintenance, repair and upgrading of quarters in Putrajaya from 2017 to 2020 covering two main audit areas, namely activity performance and activity management.

The audit exercise was conducted on BPH as the activity administrator, two implementing agencies – the Putrajaya Public Works Department (JKR) and Putrajaya Corporation (PPj) – as well as 13 facilities management and maintenance services (FM) contractors appointed by the implementing agencies.

The audit report revealed that only 75.7% of complaints were resolved by FM contractors appointed by JKR Putrajaya compared to the key performance indicators (KPIs) set at 90%.

It added that the overall performance of FM contractors appointed by PPj in resolving complaints was at 94%, which exceeds the KPI (85%). However, four FM contractors only managed to resolve 45.5 to 84% of the complaints during certain months between 2017 and 2020.

Apart from that, preventive maintenance involving the tree pruning of terrace-type quarters units and grass cutting of bungalow-type quarters was not carried out according to schedule based on 314 complaints lodged by the residents, it said, adding that the 141 complaints lodged by residents related to clogged gutters showed that the FM contractors did not carry out regular inspections and maintenance.

The report also revealed that five FM contractors appointed by JKR Putrajaya did not comply with the service level agreement for resolving complaints (repair time) involving a total of 2,917 complaints, adding that they took between 15 and 771 days to attend to the complaints.

It said five PPj-appointed FM contractors took more than 14 days to resolve 125 damage complaints, adding that the repair time taken was between 15 and 146 days.

In addition, JKR Putrajaya and PPj took between 69 and 1,051 days and between 13 and 885 days respectively to carry out repair works for major damage at vacant quarters units.

The audit report said BPH should focus on monitoring the performance of implementing agencies, adding that all maintenance work should be handed over to JKR Putrajaya and PPj.

It also said that JKR and PPj should manage complaints using a system that can record complaints comprehensively including classifying complaints as major or minor as well as recording contractors’ response and repair time.

The government allocated funds amounting to RM401.24 million from 2017 to 2020 for the maintenance of occupied quarters units and the repair of vacant quarters units to ensure that the residential quarters of federal civil service officers are always in good condition and conducive for occupancy.