The Public Sector Home Financing Board (LPPSA) should immediately stop housing loan repayment deductions for civil servants who bought Sentoria Borneo Samariang Garden houses.

Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) Sarawak chairman Omar Bahrain Unin said LPPSA should also reimburse all salary deductions for those payments that have been made by civil servants involved as they have been unable to move into the incomplete houses.

“Hopefully LPPSA and the relevant parties will look into this matter seriously as the issue had dragged on for more than two years, causing untold hardship and sacrifices of the civil servants who were involved in buying such houses,” he said in a statement.

Omar Bahrain said it was unfair for LPPSA to continue deducting the salaries of the civil servants concerned when the houses remained incomplete and unsuitable for occupancy, though it had exceeded the period of the purchase agreement.

“There are still many construction processes that are not fully completed or do not comply with the certificate of occupancy (occupation permit). As such, we would like to appeal to federal Ministry of Housing (and Local Government) as well as the state Ministry of (Public Health,) Housing and (Local Government) and the federal Ministry of (Domestic Trade and) Consumer Affairs to help the civil servants involved to address the problems they encountered so that they could stop from being oppressed by LPPSA,” he said.

Omar Bahrain said Cuepacs is very concerned about and sympathetic towards the civil servants involved as they are not only paying the housing loans for their incomplete houses but also rental for their current accommodation.

He said some civil servants had already applied to LPPSA to review their salary deductions but thus far there has been no response from the relevant agencies concerned.

“The developers involved in the project should therefore take full responsibility to complete the project soonest. Do not let most of the buyers, who are from the B40 and M40 group, suffer due to the problematic project being abandoned,” he added.

The housing project commenced in 2018 involving over 1,000 houses in Phases 4, 5, and 7, as well as Spektra 1 and 2, and was supposed to have been completed in 2019.

Last month, a group of house buyers at the stalled Phase 7 gathered at their half-completed units to host an Aidilfitri open house to highlight their plight.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by PHILIP WONG

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]