The Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia (BEIM) categorically condemns any business that does not uphold business ethics. We take particular note of the recently implemented parking rates hike by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) in the Federal territory.

The recent article by FA Abdul, ‘Feeling cheated by DBKL’s new parking rates’ (Free Malaysia Today, Aug 28, 2016), refers. We also raise this issue in response to feedback from our members and the business community.

On behalf of the ethical business community, BEIM demands from DBKL and its associate company/companies involved in the parking rate implementation and revenue collections respond to clarify to the public the serious problems highlighted in the said expose in FMT.

We are in alignment with the legitimate question raised by FA Abdul, i.e. ‘is DBKL cheating consumers or are they just being plain ignorant?’ This if found to be true is a serious breach of fundamental ethical principles.

Why are the parking meters not calibrated to return the coins that are not sufficient to meet the hourly charge rate requirement? Is this not tantamount to short-changing the customer and a daylight robbery?

As clearly pointed out by the writer, DBKL has installed a new system from Sweden at the tune of RM23 million of taxpayers’ money. And it falls short even by the standards of the older parking machines installed and operated by the then-Petaling Jaya Municipal Council (MPPJ). The later system ‘takes into account every sen inserted in the coin slot’ and returns what does not belong to MPPJ.

DBKL’s new 100 percent hiked up parking rates from its ‘46,100 parking bays in Kuala Lumpur, (is expected to) deliver a revenue of RM9.2 million in just one month and a whopping RM110.4 million in a year’.

Besides that still unanswered ethical concern as to why the parking business is being outsourced to some third party entity and as a result giving back DBKL far less than 50 percent of the taxpayers’ money collected from the parking meters, BEIM takes issue with the parking machines ‘stealing the money from the citizens.

The question that eludes citizens is why is an outsourced entity earning the bulk of taxpayers’ money and not DBKL who are entrusted with bringing improving services and amenities to city dwellers?

Are such and several out-sourcing modus operandi being practiced by the government the new culture of covert corruption?

The public cannot be blamed for forming an inevitable opinion that the latest DBKL parking meter venture (including several other such out-sourcing businesses involving other government service agencies/institutions) is suspect of finding ways and means to pour ‘easy’ money into the coffers of certain political machineries.

We hope the authorities concerned and responsible for the parking rate hike, its operation and collection of revenue will respond to these concerns that BEIM brings to the fore on behalf of all ethical business operators who are burdened by this unethical hike in parking rates, the out-sourcing that raises ethical concerns and the unethical operation of the RM23 million collected from parking meters installed.