KUALA LUMPUR - After more than eight years in waiting, the Solid Waste Management Bill which has been drafted and fine-tuned, will finally be tabled in the coming parliament sitting.

The delay in tabling the bill has caused uncertainty over the privatisation of solid waste management services in the country.

Minister in the Prime Minister Department’s Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz when confirming this today said the much awaited bill would be the second bill, after the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) (Amended 2006) to be tabled during the session which begins next month.

“The Solid Waste bill is likely to be tabled in April. This is because, normally when parliament opens by the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong, there would be a debate on the royal address which takes few weeks.

“Only after that the bill will be tabled,” he told reporters after delivering a luncheon address at the World Ethics and Transparency Forum, organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI), here Monday.

Last year, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting had said the dilemma faced by the two interim concessionaires — Alam Flora Sdn Bhd and Southern Waste Sdn Bhd — which took over the domestic waste disposal services eight years ago would likely end soon.

However, he did not mention when the bill would be tabled.

Alam Flora was given the concession for waste disposal services in the central and eastern regions of peninsular Malaysia and Southern Waste, in the southern states such as Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Johor.

The existing concessionaires are still in the interim stage of taking over as the full privatisation agreement has not being signed due to the delay in tabling the bill.

The concessionaires were given the interim agreement to familiarise themselves with the disposal waste services before signing a full privatisation agreement.

However, this interim agreement has lasted more than eight years as the government has not made its final policy decision on the privatisation of solid waste services in the country.

Only last year, the government made the final decision on the bill which also took into account landfills and recycling initially slated for tabling last year but deferred to this year as the government had to give priority to many other bills.

Source: BERNAMA

(2007-02-12)