Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has offered local councillor Lim Mah Hui to take over the enforcement unit in charge of towing illegally parked vehicles.

“I accept the fact that law enforcement may still be lacking, but hope those who are dissatisfied can also do something about it,” Lim said at a dialogue session with Penang Forum members in George Town yesterday.

“Since Mah Hui is a councillor, the state government can give him full authority to enforce the law,” Lim added.

Mah Hui, who is also an NGO representative, declined, saying that he did not have the resources to do so, adding that he could do it if he were appointed a mayor.

He rejected the offer, saying he preferred to play an advisory role in the matter.

"You are the elected representative, not me," Mah Hui told Lim.

Activist Rebecca Duckett said that Lim appeared to be trying to shift responsibility by making such an offer to an NGO rep.

“You don’t need to be a mayor to do this," Lim replied.

“Anyway, we will study your recommendation and hope Mah Hui would take up the challenge,” he added.

Outsourcing enforcement

Earlier, Mah Hui said since the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) enforced the policy of towing illegally parked vehicles three years ago, the MBPP was only equipped with a truck and towed only one to two cars in a month.

"If the enforcement officers can only tow a car an hour, what are they doing the rest of the seven hours at work?” Mah Hui asked.

“You and I can only guess. We find there are officers who did not carry out their duties for 12 days within a month; names were given but no action was taken,” Mah Hui ( pix ) claimed.

“Instead of facing up to this (efficiency) problem, MBPP chooses to purchase five or six more trucks."

Mah Hui also suggested that MBPP consider outsourcing enforcement to private companies, but its officers must be present during operations.

In response, Lim ordered MBPP president Patahiyah Ismail to sack officers who were absent from work.

The dialogue saw representatives from Penang Forum – a coalition of local NGOs – discuss with Lim over MBPP's plan to transplant 16 trees along Jalan Masjid Negeri to make way for a RM18- million road expansion project.

Besides Patahiyah, also present at the dialogue were engineering department director Addnan Mohd Razali and deputy director A Rajendran.

Lim has claimed the state government has planted 271,000 trees since 2008, and that it was only planning to transplant 18 trees in the process of widening the 1.8km road along Jalan Masjid Negeri to ease traffic congestion.