KL mayor tabled the 2011 Budget

Source: http://thestar.com.my/metro (By LIM CHIA YING, 20/12/2010)
KL mayor Datuk Seri Ahmad Fuad Ismail, who tabled the 2011 Budget, said the focus on the Budget for next year would be on ‘Cleaner, Greener and More Comfortable Kuala Lumpur’.

“In line with our theme, City Hall will focus on five main priorities; strengthening our delivery of services, improving the city’s cleanliness, better maintenance of roads, drainage and public facilities, increase greening programmes and maintenance of public parks, and also looking into the maintenance and development of public housing,” he said during the press briefing at the DBKL headquarters after unveiling the Budget 2011 to the Kuala Lumpur MPs.

“From RM2.007bil, approximately RM1.27bil (63%) will be allocated for operations while the remaining RM734mil (37%) will be used for development.” Based on DBKL’s December financial account, Ahmad Fuad noted an increase of RM979mil which he attributed to the sales and disposal of DBKL’s assets, development charges to developers which he said was newly-introduced and contributed as the second highest revenue earner, as well as the collection of debts where 90% have been paid up. “We are also reducing 50% in license rates for some 67,000 petty traders in KL and also reducing the assessment tax rates by 2% for service apartments and apartments in commercial premises,” he said.

On Alam Flora, RM124mil has been set aside to pay their contract, but Ahmad Fuad said a work schedule and key performance index on their service level was being created so if their performance was not up to par, the contract would be terminated.

On why some constituencies saw such a drastic decrease in their allocation, he said this was because some projects had already been completed in certain areas and the monies had to be fairly distributed according to the constituency’s needs and not just focused on one place.

Several of the MPs also asked for specifics of the developments to be built in the different constituencies as they said the information was not provided during the meeting.

Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said he was quite happy with the higher allocation for his constituency, from RM29.6mil to RM63.7mil for next year. He hoped the allocation would be duly used to ease the Jalan Segambut infamous congestion, where plans were afoot to widen the Jalan Segambut to Mont Kiara road under the Eighth Malaysian Plan but has been delayed.

He also complained as to why DBKL was giving RM27mil to maintain and operate the Integrated Transportation and Information System (Itis) when a lot of complaints have been received about the system being a flop. Lim said the mayor replied that the DBKL was bound by a contract with Itis.

Ahmad Fuad, when asked later, said Itis is a Federal Government project and passed on to City Hall after it was completed. “There are two million vehicles moving in KL and traffic will be a bigger nightmare without Itis. “Of course, there are weaknesses in the gantry because the cables were stolen but we’ll look into that,” he said.