During the long break, my friend's family went to KK for a short holiday... on the way back at the Brunei-Limbang boarder, apparently they were stopped by plain-clothes customs/religious officer (?) who ask them, if they bought any meat - ie pork or chicken with them?
See what is wrong with this scenerio?
Why are the enforcement people cared about non-muslims bringing meat that is used for their own comsumption? Had they got nothing better to do? Why don't they catch people who brings in drugs or excessively amount of fruits from Malaysian boarder, and yet keep this stupid antics of stopping non-mulims for getting "non-halal" meat for their own consumption?
CNY is near the corner, and its time to make non-muslims life a bit difficult i guess... according to my friend..
sorry if this is "offensive", but rather than worry about things like this, the customs/religious officers (my friend couldnt tell which dept were they from), our highly paid govt servants should be looking out for more harmful items that crossed our boarder, rather than making people life hell with the long queue that already exist at the boarder...
Religion teaches people to be nice, but ..... sigh....
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Fighting Corruption in Brunei
Everyone knows corruption exists not only in Brunei, but also the whole wide world, not only in developing countries but in developed countries... it is the scale of corruption done that differs from one country to another country... With less FDI into Brunei and not much major private sector economy in the country cept for the oil and gas industry, corruption in Brunei can be seen as "minute" compared to other countries..
Then again, what is wrong, is wrong...
Everyone knows that corruption in Brunei are mostly due to the red tape that exists... and literally its all about red tapes - the opaque procedures that occur around any "procedures".
Take, the tendering process..
Tenders are supposed to be "open" and published by Pelita Brunei and available on the notice board of the departments' concerned. But if you look at Pelita Brunei now (the website anyway, which is not updated), there's barely any projects going around... then again, is this true?
Then once a tender is being publish, then you have to look at the time allowed for contractors to submit the contract. Is it rationale for a contract worth over tens of millions to be estimated, can be completed in just 2 weeks? of coz... the implications are a lot here... probably a particular contract has been selected here.. hehhe...
Then once contractors submit the tender.. then what happens? No one knows until the contract has been awarded and this may take months... 6 months to 1 year perhaps? Why is this so? How difficult is it the tender board to put out the list of the prices of the contractors have bid? why is this against the law? why is not "transparent"? why allow the "wheeling and dealing" behind the scenes?
If the lowest contractor has been the top priority, then obviously, the performance of the said contractor must be assessed. Yet, people knows underperforming contractors are also allowed to take projects even though their other ongoing projects are delayed.
Then consultants... using consultants are good, supposedly having the latest knowldege building and designing a particular project. Being consultants where their fee is based on the tendered project price, obviously they would recomend higher bid contractor. Mind you, you have to check the materials that they have "recomend" to use. Sometimes, it would be unreasonable to have a gold plated door handle that costs say $50 when a silver plated door handle that works perfectly as well, can cost only $20...
Then once a project has been awarded, the contractor who won the project is not announced. It used to be published in the old newspapers on which contractor won a particular project, with the price clearly stated.... not now though... only after everything was done and "groundbreaking" ceremony starts that the price maybe announced...
Then, incase the contractor's job is delayed, yet why is it allowed to be delayed? which organization has the power and authority to make sure they work? and if they dont work, their contact should be cancelled. yet, most contracts are allowed to remain idle for years... why?
While ACB keeps talking about catching the corrupt regardless of creed or breed, it's a wonder why other depts are not involved in supporting ACB's aims... yes, ACB must be careful because Bruneians love to assassinate a character - get it - character assassination lah - heheh... then again, the leaves wouldnt move if there's no wind? it is based on the wise judgement of the people concern to estimate what is jealously and what is real corrupt behaviour... that is easily distinguised one probing is carefully done..
Psssst.... wasnt it staed in the General Orders that assets of public servants must be declared?... is it practiced?
pssst... the new ACB website looks great... BUT the statistics section is useless... why not look at the years of complaints rather than looking a just a few months of a year????
Then again, what is wrong, is wrong...
Everyone knows that corruption in Brunei are mostly due to the red tape that exists... and literally its all about red tapes - the opaque procedures that occur around any "procedures".
Take, the tendering process..
Tenders are supposed to be "open" and published by Pelita Brunei and available on the notice board of the departments' concerned. But if you look at Pelita Brunei now (the website anyway, which is not updated), there's barely any projects going around... then again, is this true?
Then once a tender is being publish, then you have to look at the time allowed for contractors to submit the contract. Is it rationale for a contract worth over tens of millions to be estimated, can be completed in just 2 weeks? of coz... the implications are a lot here... probably a particular contract has been selected here.. hehhe...
Then once contractors submit the tender.. then what happens? No one knows until the contract has been awarded and this may take months... 6 months to 1 year perhaps? Why is this so? How difficult is it the tender board to put out the list of the prices of the contractors have bid? why is this against the law? why is not "transparent"? why allow the "wheeling and dealing" behind the scenes?
If the lowest contractor has been the top priority, then obviously, the performance of the said contractor must be assessed. Yet, people knows underperforming contractors are also allowed to take projects even though their other ongoing projects are delayed.
Then consultants... using consultants are good, supposedly having the latest knowldege building and designing a particular project. Being consultants where their fee is based on the tendered project price, obviously they would recomend higher bid contractor. Mind you, you have to check the materials that they have "recomend" to use. Sometimes, it would be unreasonable to have a gold plated door handle that costs say $50 when a silver plated door handle that works perfectly as well, can cost only $20...
Then once a project has been awarded, the contractor who won the project is not announced. It used to be published in the old newspapers on which contractor won a particular project, with the price clearly stated.... not now though... only after everything was done and "groundbreaking" ceremony starts that the price maybe announced...
Then, incase the contractor's job is delayed, yet why is it allowed to be delayed? which organization has the power and authority to make sure they work? and if they dont work, their contact should be cancelled. yet, most contracts are allowed to remain idle for years... why?
While ACB keeps talking about catching the corrupt regardless of creed or breed, it's a wonder why other depts are not involved in supporting ACB's aims... yes, ACB must be careful because Bruneians love to assassinate a character - get it - character assassination lah - heheh... then again, the leaves wouldnt move if there's no wind? it is based on the wise judgement of the people concern to estimate what is jealously and what is real corrupt behaviour... that is easily distinguised one probing is carefully done..
Psssst.... wasnt it staed in the General Orders that assets of public servants must be declared?... is it practiced?
pssst... the new ACB website looks great... BUT the statistics section is useless... why not look at the years of complaints rather than looking a just a few months of a year????
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