Selangor mulls sacking Syabas chairperson and CEO

The Selangor government will propose to the board of Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) that its executive chairperson and chief executive officer be dismissed for not coming to provide an explanation to the state’s Syabas supervisory committee. 

With the dismissal, operational cost savings from the salary of Syabas’ executive chairperson alone will total at least RM5.1 million.

This was stated by Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim in a statement tonight.

Khalid said the state government is prepared to provide an allocation for building a new water treatment plant to improve the production capacity of treated water and will immediately call for tenders for its Mitigation Project 2 costing a total of RM225 million.

The state government is taking this step to protect the interests of consumers in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya who were affected by Syabas’ failure to provide clean water as had been agreed under the concession agreement, read the statement further.

Khalid added that the state government is confident that the federal government will not attempt to disrupt the planned measures in order to safeguard the interests and well-being of the rakyat.

He said the Syabas supervisory committee chaired by the state secretary was formed following the statement and proposal for water rationing announced by Syabas.

Its purpose is to monitor daily the effectiveness and efficiency of Syabas’ services and the water supply situation for consumers, including on-site monitoring of the water supply shortage as had been claimed by Syabas. 

Khalid said the committee will review improvement and recovery proposals on the water supply problems faced. Syabas has been asked to report the following details to the committee:

1. Daily water production for each treatment plan and dam level;
2. Demand according to metered consumption from Januray 2012 until the present;
3. Estimated demand prepared by Syabas;
4. Information on water levels at balancing reservoir, terminal reservoir and service reservoir;
5. Areas which experienced water supply disruption;
6. Detailed information on main pipe networks including dams and problem areas including non-revenue water (NRW);
7. Main causes (micro) of the areas experiencing water supply problems;
8. Proposed solutions suggested by Syabas on the problems arising, and
9. Emergency response plans prepared by Syabas.