Company didn’t fulfil contract to clean court complex, says minister

VK Liew says there is a fundamental breach of the contract and if need be, it must be terminated.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department VK Liew says the cleaning company has not supplied enough workers.

KUALA LUMPUR: A company assigned to maintain cleanliness at the Jalan Duta Court Complex here has breached its contract, says Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department VK Liew.

He said the government had made the payments but the company did not supply enough workers to fulfil its tasks.

“There is a fundamental breach of the contract. If need be, the contract must be terminated,” he said after visiting the court complex this evening.

He said the company was to supply 120 workers but last month this dwindled to 60 and on some days, only a few were available.

Also present were his deputy Hanipa Maidin, Chief Justice Richard Malanjum, Chief Judge of Malaya Zaharah Ibrahim and Federal Court Chief Registrar Latifah Mohd Tahar.

He said courthouses were public places and they must be conducive for judges, support staff and the public.

Liew’s visit came about following media reports that judges and staff at the court complex had to sweep the floors and clean the toilets themselves because the cleaners had been on strike since May.

The federal government has a contract with a cleaning company which runs until December.

Workers were reported to have staged a strike allegedly because they were not paid their salaries as promised.

Yesterday, Malanjum and Zaharah led their subordinates to conduct a gotong-royong programme at the court complex.

Liew said the government would also ensure court buildings were maintained to ensure those occupying them were safe.

He said the building, the second largest court complex in Asia, lacked air-conditioning facilities and some parts of the structure needed evaluation.

“Public Works Department engineers need to inspect the building so that remedial steps could be taken,” he said.

Liew said to prevent any untoward incident he would inform the Cabinet that more funding had to be allocated to maintain and upgrade 300 courthouses nationwide. -FMT