HANDS OFF MY EPF SAVINGS!

Report in The Star 15 March

Honestly, some of the things the government does makes no sense. Take the latest example. The government launched the My First Home Scheme in March 2011 to help young working adults own their first home. Banks were supposed to provide 100% loans for houses costing up to RM200,000 (for single applicants earning up to RM3k a month), and up to RM400,000 (for couples with a joint income of up to RM6k a month).

A year on, Bank Negara has issued a statement to say that half of the applicants from a total of 1062 do not qualify. The main reason - they failed to prove their ability to repay the loan due to poor credit history and non-sustainable income. (For details of eligibility criteria, click here.)

Not surprising. Which bank would want to lend to borrowers who have a high risk of defaulting on their repayments?

Time to crack the whip? Hah! Yet another empty threat.

Meanwhile, over in Petaling Jaya, the PJ City Council (PJCC) is threatening to evict defaulters of their public housing scheme. Tenants of the low-cost apartments in Taman Putra Damai, Subang and in PPR Kota Damansara owe a total of RM10 million in arrears. Despite the low monthly rental of RM124 for a 3-room unit, many tenants still don't / won't / can't pay up.

The defaulters have been issued several reminder letters, but they have chosen to blatantly ignore all these reminders. You can be sure they will similarly chuck the eviction notice in the trash bin.

The EPF is flushed with money and currently holds RM470 billion in assets.

The crux of the problem is the half-hearted attempts by enforcement officers to impose penalties, coupled with the habit of bending over backwards to accommodate defaulters. PJCC is prepared to discuss payment arrangements including accepting instalments. PJCC wants to wield the stick, but at the same time doesn't want to be seen as the bad guys. The result? PJCC is perceived as a toothless tiger that no law-breakers would take seriously.

The same goes for most government agencies. They make poor bill collectors. And so the losses keep mounting. Billions of the rakyat's money washed down the drain. No chance of recovering it. The same thing with student loans.

FT Minister (Pic: Malaysian Insider)

Unfortunately these financially painful lessons are not learned. And the long history of mistakes repeats itself. A case in point - Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) recently announced that RM1.5 billion of EPF funds will be used to finance DBKL's low-cost housing scheme. Federal Territories Minister Datuk Raja Nong Chik said the ministry had already offered the loan to 24,000 City Hall low-cost housing tenants. The funds will be disbursed by June or July this year.

For sure, no commercial banks is prepared to finance these high-risk loans. The solution? Turn to the EPF. It's the government's second piggy bank after Petronas.

But EPF funds belong to people like you and me who have worked hard to put aside some savings for their retirement years. Should we be concerned that City Hall is digging into our retirement pie without so much as a "May we?" to ask for our permission? Have we no say in where our money goes?

Based on the poor track record of low-cost housing defaulters, we can probably say Bye-Bye to the bulk of the RM1.5 billion. What happens if these "eligible" applicants later find themselves unable to keep up with the repayments? Or worse, refuse to honour their part of the contract even though they can afford to?

How safe are my EPF savings? Of course, DBKL will assure employees and retirees that there is no cause for alarm. What would be your course of action if you had savings with the EPF?

It's obvious, isn't it?

TAXPAYERS' MONEY GONE DOWN THE LOO

StarMetro headlines today.

I almost choked on my tuna sandwich this morning when I saw this headline. That was just for starters. My eyeballs nearly popped out when I read the report. RM400,000 for a public toilet! That sum can buy a young couple their first house!

An Automated Street Toilet at a launching ceremony in 2006.

The toilet today. Closed for permanent repairs? Honestly, it looks more like aRM4000 toilet than a RM400,000 one. That's taxpayers' money truly gone down the loo.

I remember the fanfare that went with the launching of these toilets in 2006. I remember too thinking at the time that it wouldn't be long before one by one these toilets would break down and eventually become public eyesores. Well, my fears have come true in just a short span of barely six years.

What boogles the mind is that each of these Automated Street Toilets (AST) costs a whopping RM400,000. There are 20 of them scattered around the city. That makes a total of RM8 million spent on providing a convenient place for people to pee! Guess who uses these ASTs most? Foreign workers and labourers.

It gets even better. These ASTs are supposed to be high-tech. "The doors are very sensitive," says a spokesman from City Hall's building maintenance department. Probably true. I've seen a foreign labourer banging and kicking the door of an AST in the Kota Raya area in a vain attempt to get it open.

My question is - why go for state-of-the-art toilets when most folks here don't even know how to use the low-tech toilets we currently have in public places?

Something stinks here, and it's not just coming from these toilets. No one will be surprised if these ASTs end up in the next Auditor-General's report.

I was downtown today with my camera. I managed to capture more examples of shoddy maintenance.

This wheelchair lift at KLCC seems to be either under utilised or permanently under repair. Why?

Jalan Sultan in Chinatown after a heavy downpour this afternoon. The surrounding drains were all clogged. No wonder the area is flooded whenever there's heavy rain.

TV screens with no pictures. Most of the buses are poorly maintained, with broken plastic seats and ticket machines that often break down.

You wouldn't expect to see this at the food court in Mid-Valley, one of the city's premier shopping malls. Not only are both taps not working, the sink doors are held together with cellophane tape!

Potential danger. Exposed cables along Jalan Ampang.