THE poor occupancy rate for the People’s Housing Project’s Rent-to-Own scheme has been pinned down to contractors’ weakness and unclear work process by the National Audit Department.

In its latest audit report, the department said the delays in handing over completed units to the National Housing Department (NHD) led to poor occupancy.

The report found that the Local Government and Housing Ministry took between 23 to 866 days to handover built units to the NHD.

Five projects, namely PPR Lembah Subang 2, Sentul Murni, Taman Danau, Taman Silau Jaya and Tok Suboh took more than 30 days before it was handed over to the department.

The 866-day delay in the handover of PPR Lembah Subang was because the contractor was slow in completing work.

“As a result, the occupancy (of the units) could not be managed efficiently because the occupancy period takes between one to 40 months,” the report said.

“The overall occupancy was 2,143 units (53.3%), it added.

Seven projects saw a delay in occupancy from between one to 40 months. As a result, 1,880 or 33.4% of the 4023 units remained vacant.

Other findings include the appointment of contractors through direct negotiation and weaknesses in the management of deposit collection and rental whereby the appointed agent did not furnish the NHD with full details.

The housing project caters to those with a monthly income of less than RM3,000 and for resettlement of slum dwellers. – July 14, 2020.