PUTRAJAYA, Nov 6 — Live streaming of meetings of local authorities (PBT) that can be viewed by the public will be held in March next year.
This will be initiated by 17 City Councils in Selangor and the Federal Territories, said Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.
She said agreeing to hold ‘Council Meetings’ live as in Parliament showed that the local authorities were progressive and bold.
“It is an approach to expose the people to the role of local authorities, local government discussions in meetings, decisions taken and how to spend taxpayers’ money,” she told the media here yesterday after an award ceremony presenting star ratings for local authorities service delivery which took place virtually.
She said that people would be more interested in understanding the workings of local authorities and assisting them to move forward to ensure that the planning of their respective areas was orderly and structured.
Zuraida said it was important to recognise local authorities as a ‘third level government’ because it was the government structure closest to the people and played an important role in the delivery of policies, enforcement and law.
Community involvement should be enhanced through council members or local authority councillors in an effort to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, she said.
“The grassroots must understand, otherwise, the implementation will be weak and unachievable. Our emphasis is to ensure local authorities understand the SDGs, and use the machinery in their respective local authorities through councillors, go down to the field to understand what the SDG is, then the people will work with them,” she said.
At yesterday’s ceremony, 10 local authorities got the highest marks for the PBT Star Rating System (SPB-PBT), with Manjung Municipal Council taking first place, Kota Kinabalu City Hall (second) and Kuala Terengganu City Council (third).
For the highest SPB-PBT score, 10 local authorities were recognised with Tambunan District Council in the first place, Pasir Mas District Council (second) and Hulu Terengganu District Council (third).
On the expectations of the Housing and Local Government Ministry in the presentation of the 2021 Budget today, Zuraida said among the priorities voiced to the Finance Ministry was to ensure homeownership among B40s is more targeted and the banking system is relaxed for home financing applications.
“Among the B40 group, we have B10, B20, B30. Our target is to ensure that groups who cannot afford to own a house for example B10 with an income of RM1,500 and below, we will plan a special programme for them,” she said.
— Bernama
