ABOUT eight City Hall councillors who are politicial appointees are in the crosshairs, said Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad.

He said City Hall will follow the proper procedures to ensure they resign but will not set a timeframe for them to “understand” that they must go.

“There is around seven or eight (of these political appointees),” he said at a press conference held after his first visit to City Hall, today.

“Eventually we will be forced (to fire them). If they still don’t want to resign and don’t understand, then we will follow the proper procedures.” 

Previously, Khalid had announced that all Barisan Nasional representatives on the City Hall advisory board were required to immediately relinquish their positions.

“We have the names… the members of the advisory board are supposed to be experts. They are appointed based on their expertise so they can give quality service and contribute to DBKL.

“If we read the Federal Territories Act, it is clear that they are not supposed to be political appointees,” he said.

Section 6 of the Federal Territories Act states that DBKL may appoint committees to assist it in the performance of its duties or the exercise of its powers. 

“But for now, in the list I have seen, a lot of these political appointees are chosen based on their political positions, not their expertise,” Khalid said.

He also said that DBKL previously operated on a top-down basis where orders from the “top” interfered with professional standard operating procedures.

“Now, a lot of them say they can now perform their work professionally without involvement from the top going against their professional standard operating procedures,” he said.

When asked whether he was referring to former Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, he said he would leave it to readers to decide.

“Maybe (I’m referring to Tengku Adnan), but I leave it to the readers,” he said.

He also vowed not to interfere with DBKL’s SOP without reason, and agreed that Kuala Lumpur MPs would now be incorporated into DBKL’s decision-making process.

“DBKL has agreed to open its doors as wide as possible to enable and congratulate the involvement of KL MPs in all issues.

“We will discuss the suggestion of structural reform to make all of this possible later,” he said. – July 9, 2018.