Perak Pakatan accuses Ipoh council of misusing public funds

Perak Pakatan Rakyat has accused the Ipoh City Council of misusing public funds by employing 22 workers just to remove the memorial plaque under the infamous Democracy Tree.
State DAP chief Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham claimed that the Ipoh City Council had spent a total of RM580.40 just to remove the plaque, RM150 for the use of an excavator, RM18 for the driver and RM412.40 for overtime claims for 20 of the councils enforcement staff.
The overtime claims, he added, was because the staff had conducted the job at 6.58am on March 15, which was a Sunday.
“In the first place, why do they need to employ so many people to remove a tiny plaque? Why did they waste public funds by removing the plaque on a Sunday and paying their workers overtime claims just to do this?
“It only took four of us to erect the plaque so I don’t understand why it took so many of them to remove it,” he said in a press conference here Saturday.
Ngeh said that Tebing Tinggi assemblyman Ong Boon Piow had come to know of the costs when the latter went to the council to retrieve the plaque and the five tree signposts that the council had taken on Monday.
“He was asked to pay a total of RM830.40, RM580.40 for the removal costs and RM250 as a fine.
“How can we be made to pay a fine when we were never even issued a summons,” he said.
However, Ngeh said that Ong made the payment and the council “graciously” returned the plaque and the signposts on Wednesday.
Ngeh also said that the removal of the plaque was “illegal” for it was done in accordance with Section 46(1)(a) of the Street, Drainage and Building Act 1974.
“The act says that the council has the right to remove any structure that poses as an obstruction.
“I think it is clear to every one of us that the plaque was in no way an obstruction to the public. If the plaque was an obstruction, then the entire tree itself is an obstruction too,” he said.
As such, Ngeh said that the council had wrongfully enforced its powers under the act.