The Penang government today clarified that its instruction barring visitors from entering the Chief Minister's office on the 28th floor of the Komtar building was a normal administrative procedure.   

The Penang Chief Minister's private secretary Farida Hani M Yacob said the instruction was not meant to bar visitors to the CM's office but to ensure people did not simply walk in and out as they liked.  

"If a visitor wants to meet a certain officer, for example me, I can bring the person to the CM's office area. It is not a problem.

"Sometimes visitors come without making an appointment. We do not know their reason for coming and cannot simply allow people to enter the CM's office to suit their own convenience," she told reporters in Georgetown today.   

She added that the 28th floor and several other floors at the Komtar building were gazetted as restricted zones whereby members of the public must obtain special passes from the building's security personnel on the third floor in order to get to them.

Farida Hani was responding to complaints from Umno Youth information chief Reezal Merican Naina Merican that restrictions imposed by the CM's office was making it difficult for the public to bring up their problems to the attention of the chief minister.

- Bernama