Search results

Effective building maintenance management is vital for reducing the impact of building defects and costly building maintenance work. Such practice significantly contributes to the public sector in terms of cost reduction, improved effectiveness and efficiency in maintenance works, increasing safety and well-being of the occupants, expanding the life of building stocks and expanding the value of investment for the government building assets. The maintenance practice in Malaysia is still emerging in comparison to many developed nations. The purpose of this study is to determine the current scenario of the building maintenance approach at the design stage in public buildings in Malaysia.

An extensive questionnaire survey was held, involving 312 key players (38 per cent out of 820 predetermined participants) in Malaysia.

The analysis showed that building maintenance in public building in Malaysia still uses the reactive approach. Despite the Malaysian Government’s adoption of a proactive maintenance approach, unfortunately, there are some misunderstandings among the key players regarding the approach. The research results demonstrate that the key players had a lack of understanding on the concept of the proactive maintenance management approach and that they were either ignorant or had insufficient awareness of proactive maintenance approach.

The contribution of this study is useful for the government to adopt a more proactive building maintenance policy at the design stage, to give awareness on proactive building maintenance to the key players in their construction project and as a guide to the key players to adopt a maintenance plan at the design stage of work.

The purpose of this study was identifying factors that encourage property tax payment among property owners, specifically from the residential property segment within the Malaysian context. This aim is derived from existing evidence which clearly indicates a steady annual increase in property tax arrears from non-complying property owners as reported by the local governments (LGs).

This research was conducted using a survey method where a questionnaire was used as the research instrument in garnering the necessary study data. The collected data was analyzed through quantitative means towards gleaning study findings to fulfil the set objectives. The analyses used within this study were reliability analysis, descriptive analysis and factor analysis.

Research findings indicate that there are five factors that encourage property tax payment, namely, the proactive action capability of LGs; stimulation of payment; quality of staff and service; reliable tax foundation and governance; and smart expenditure. The identification of these factors has the potential to act as a mitigation mechanism for LGs to alleviate the issue of property tax arrears.

The findings of this study may be used by LGs in developing a comprehensive action plan to encourage property owners to pay taxes. The study findings are exploratory in nature, based on the locality of the LG selected in this study, the Penang Island City Council (MBPP). As such, the findings may not be considered as a generalization of the property tax situation throughout Malaysia as study data was only collected from the administrative region of MBPP. However, these findings can still be used as a basis in establishing similar studies within other LGs which demonstrate similar characteristics with MBPP.

In the Malaysian scenario, the focus of the previous studies on property tax arrears revolves around actions that have been taken by LGs to encourage the payment of property tax. However, in this study, the determination of encouraging factors is no longer referred to LG perspectives but was investigated from the taxpayer dimension. This approach allows new mitigating ideas to be developed and adds value in the context of a different perspective towards establishing a more practicable action plan in reducing property tax arrears.

The purpose of this study is to explore the main barriers of ISO 9000 implementation in local government (LG) organizations. In addition to this, this study also determines whether these barriers are different between the various types of LG organizations or otherwise.

Based on previous studies and research, related and relevant information had been gathered in order to develop the questionnaire form used in this research to ensure adequacy and accuracy of the survey tool content. The main content of the questionnaire focuses on statements that relate to the barriers which normally occur in implementing ISO 9000. The data that was garnered from this survey was then analysed using quantitative methods in line with answering the related research questions.

Descriptive statistical analysis shows that, in total, there are five main barriers and two additional barriers that have been faced by LG organizations in implementing ISO 9000. Five of these barriers are the common barriers as frequently discussed in previous studies, while the remaining two main barriers are new findings that were discovered through this study. The non‐parametric analysis results also indicate that from the seven discovered barriers, only four have differences based on the types of LG organizations.

The top management of LG organizations must realize that the implementation of ISO 9000 in their organizations has been certainly hindered by several barriers. Therefore, certain specific measures must be undertaken to ensure that these obstacles may be overcome and subsequently enable a LG organization to meet the target of acquiring accreditation within a shorter period of time. This will in turn facilitate more LG organizations to achieve this certification in line with the aim of the government.

This paper has discovered the specific main barriers that obstruct ISO implementation in Malaysian LG organizations. The findings of this study indicate that these main barriers constitute obstacles that have been previously discussed as well as new hindrances which have yet to be explored in detail. This study could also be used to further expand research regarding the ISO 9000 subject matter, specifically within the context of the public sector which is relatively scarcely researched especially in Malaysia.