It was reported that on Saturday, 21st of December, 2013, tons of rubbish were dumped along the Middle Ring Road 2 (MRR2) by contractors because the Taman Beringin transfer station in Kepong was closed. It was later reported that the reason the transfer station was closed was because of broken and non-working compactors.[1]KL Mayor Ahmad Phesal was also reported to have said that the “The Taman Beringin Transfer Station has been facing problems since 2011 after Umpan Jaya Sdn Bhd was appointed by City Hall to manage it”[2]
Why was Umpan Jaya, a general contractor, given this contract in the first place in 2011 despite the lack of a track record, according to its website, of managing or running a transfer station? The closest experience of Umpan Jaya to running a waste transfer station was to ‘raise the level of the Pulau Burung Landfill Site to “Sanitary Landfill Level III” in 2005 and to ‘raise the level of the solid waste landfill site for an MPPP project in Jelutong, Pulau Pinang’ in 2004.[3]
One hopes that it was not because Umpan Jaya Sdn Bhd was owned by Dato Mohd Noordin bin Mohd Kassim and his family. Dato Mohd Noordin is the former UMNO Batu Kawan division chief and who passed away in February 2013.[4]
Given that DBKL had already realized that Umpan Jaya was experiencing many operational problems in Taman Beringin including the lack of maintained garbage disposal trucks and compactors in poor working conditions, why did it not step in earlier to take immediate measure to ensure that the rubbish at the site was being properly managed and transferred to the Bukit Tagar sanitary landfill? Instead DBKL allowed the situation to get out of hand resulting in the emergency situation of mass rubbish dumping which occurred last Saturday.
We ask the Minister of Urban-Well Being, Housing and Local Government to disclose the cost of the management contract given to Umpan Jaya and the reason why this company was chosen. We also ask the Minister to give us the assurance that the parties involved including Umpan Jaya and the rubbish contractors will be investigated thoroughly and if found responsible, that they will be given the necessary punishment and fines. Finally, we call upon the Minister to award the next contract to manage the Taman Beringin transfer station via an open tender rather than just awarding this project to Alam Flora to manage.