When it rains, it pours in court !

  Murphy's Law is having a riot at the new Kuala Lumpur Court Complex

Comment by Shaila Koshy
koshy@thestar.com.my

WHEN I was in school, I was taught that Taiping was the wettest town in Peninsular Malaysia but these days I wonder whether that title should go to all new government buildings, specifically the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex in Jalan Duta.

Unfortunately, one can’t blame this “rainfall” on global warming; this is the result of cutting corners or just plain ineptitude.

Floods are described as rising waters but on Monday it was parts of the fifth floor in 5cm of water.

This building cost the taxpayers RM290mil but it seems that even RM290mil doesn’t get you good work these days.

Surely, Key Performance Indica­tors means you not only finish your job on time but make sure you maintain it so it doesn’t fall apart later?

Or is the Government expecting the public to keep digging into its pocket for repairs and stay quiet?

The public wants a judicial system where the administration of justice flows smoothly, not one where water/sewage flow freely because of pipes that have burst or are blocked, and where ceiling panels can float down on your head at any time.

And the Judiciary is not amused. Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi has sent a report to the Chief Secretary on the matter.

This is one problem you cannot pin on the judges. The building is owned by the Legal Affairs Division in the Prime Minister’s Depart­ment, it was built by government-appointed contractors and should have been vetted by the Public Works Department’s (PWD) architects.

But the world’s second largest court complex hasn’t had a happy start – when it was handed over to then Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim on April 17, 2007, the then Works Minister noted it had been completed ahead of schedule, but a crack appeared on a wall the very next day.

Murphy’s Law (if anything can go wrong, it will) is having a riot.

The following happened in 2007 alone:

> APRIL 30 – two ceiling panels in a judge’s secretary’s room on the third floor fell from the weight of improperly installed downlights;

> MAY 3 – 3m long cracks appeared on a wall on the fourth floor, the day of the official launch;

> MAY 7 – air-conditioning malfunctioned in a court during a trial;

> MAY 8 – blackout caused several cases to be postponed;

> MAY 23 – a pipe burst, flooding the cafeteria on the basement floor in about 7cm of water because the end cap at a tee joint had not followed the original specifications;

> MAY 24 – a sewerage manhole in a basement storeroom overflowed, causing damage to some court files.

At the time, Minister in the PM’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz had cracked his whip and the main contractor Johawaki Development Sdn Bhd apologised and said it took responsibility for the problems.

The warranty ended in February 2008 but it was quite dry on the Duta front until June 24 this year when another water pipe burst, causing the ceiling to collapse and flooding the cafeteria, mini post office and bookstore located in the basement.

While this has been the first flood reported since 2007, puddles and drips are commonplace whenever it rains. The PWD was out there on Tuesday doing its darndest.

Maybe the Inland Revenue Board will allow regular visitors a tax deduction every three years for umbrellas, hard hats and galoshes (like Phua Chu Kang’s).

Whoever is doing the repairs/maintenance should remember that frequent floods may affect the e-Court system that cost RM69.84mil.

We can blame the Internet server being down on Aug 27 to outside factors but the case management system has been on the blink because of fluctuations in the voltage.

The Public Accounts Committee, seeing as it has first-hand knowledge of working a building that has had its own share of floods, should inquire into how much repair work was done during the defects liability period and since then and how much money has been wasted.

The leaks in Parliament House only started after 40 years; what excuse does the builder of the three-year-old court complex have?