The Penang Island Municipal Council's decisions made by various sub-committees and the one stop centre (OSC) on proposed projects may be available online prior to implementation.

The council is now studying the proposal for the unprecedented move mooted by councillor Lim Kah Cheng at a recent full council meeting.

At present only the full council meetings and its decisions are open for full public viewing in compliance with provision provided under Section 27 of the Local Government 1976.

Lim wanted final decisions made at the OSC and sub-committee levels to go online to enable the public to analyse them and provide the council feedbacks, recommendations and alternative proposals.

The online proposal was also in line with the transparency adopted by the DAP-led Penang government.

"It will conform to the state government's competency, accountability and transparency governance.

"Moreover, the ratepayers have the right to know on forthcoming local planning and development projects.

"Thus, affected people would not be caught off guard with prompt emergence of projects in their area," Lim told Malaysiakini .

Not open to scrutiny

At present all council decisions made at the various sub-committees and OSC level lacked transparency and were not open to public scrutiny, he noted.

Although full council meetings were available for public viewing, it was more of endorsing what had been approved at sub-committee levels.

Indeed, OSC decisions were only mentioned at full council meeting as per information basis, not for endorsement.

The one stop centre was set up as a centralised task force level to reduce bureaucratic red tapes and speed up decision-making process on applications for planning and development projects.

At present, house owners, landlords, residents living on temporary occupants land (TOL) and even squatters were caught unaware of imminent projects.

Vital public feedback

By going online. Lim believed that the council would largely benefit since it can hear out public views, suggestions and criticisms on any flawed project proposals decided by various departments under the council.

This, Lim said, would prevent the council from implementing projects that causes no benefit to the ratepayers.

"We are talking about CAT governance. By displaying the final decisions online, it will provide the council vital public feedbacks and information that could have been overlooked during the decision-making process.

"It will more of a help and than a hindrance to the council's problem," Lim said.

Lim feels that ought to be changed as the public are increasingly demanding and open and transparent administration at all levels of the government.