KOTA KINABALU: All resort operators in Sabah must submit a list of all their employees’ personal data to the government, said Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.
Speaking to reporters at Wisma Innoprise yesterday, Masidi said the State Cabinet, which met yesterday, decided to give resort operators, including those from the mainland to the coastal areas and islands, one month from April 9 to submit the list to the relevant quarters.
Those in the ESSZone area must submit the list to ESSCom while the others, including those in the west coast, should send their list to the Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry which would then extend a copy to the police and immigration, he said.
“The question of not being able to submit the list in time does not arise. As a responsible employer, they would have the list of their workers,” Masidi said, adding that if employers could not submit in one month, then there was something wrong with the establishment.
Either they did not know their workers or they couldn’t be bothered about who they were employing, he said, adding that action would be taken on those who failed to comply with the instruction.
“The State Cabinet is of the opinion that there is a need for security vetting on all the workers that are in high-risk areas. We want to ensure the enforcement agencies know who the employees are and this is needed because when we look at what happened in Singamata, the abductors came after the security personnel left to conduct their patrol.
“So obviously there is a huge possibility that there was an insider giving them the signal of when to strike, so we want the list so that everybody will go through security vetting. It will be easier for intelligence monitoring by the security forces,” he said.
Masidi, who was instructed to make the announcement by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman who chaired the meeting which was going on during the press conference, also said the Sabah Cabinet had agreed to review the business licences of all resort operators in the state who employed workers without valid documents.
“The state cabinet which met today agreed to review the business licenses of employers who hired people with no valid documents at all resorts in the state. Yesterday I said that we have requested that all the tourism spots ensure that their employees have valid documents and work pass.
“To give the instruction more clout, the State Cabinet today decided to review the business licenses of errant resort operators. This is important to ensure that resort operators in Sabah abide by the law and we want to make sure that they only employ people who have valid identification documents and work passes,” Masidi stressed.
Masidi also pointed out that there were many small unlicensed resorts throughout the state and these would have to be noted by the authorities.
He added that the District Office, which is the licensing body, should take appropriate action and close down the unlicensed operators or give them sufficient time so that they qualify to be licensed.
The operators must comply with the licensing rules, he said adding: “The whole idea is not to penalize but to educate them that if you want to operate a business you must do it in accordance with the law. If they cannot comply with the law then too bad, they have to close.
“We cannot take chances. I hope this instruction will not alarm people. We are doing it for the sake of the tourism industry and the safety as well as security of our people. In fact resort owners should be happy because the authority is more strict in controlling the security,” he pointed out.
He also said the State Cabinet had agreed not to issue permits to passenger boat operators, especially for the business of bringing tourists to islands, without going through the same security vetting first.
Another decision made by the State Cabinet, Masidi said, was to re-evaluate the powers of Sabah Parks in approving the lease of land to businesses to operate resorts.
“Since the issue of security is very important on Sabah’s agenda, in order to assure tourists that our place (in Sabah) is safe, the state government has decided that certain powers presently held by the Sabah Parks Board of Trustees would be re-evaluated and taken over by the State Cabinet.
“This is because the State Cabinet is in the best position to evaluate the appropriateness of land leased by Sabah Parks for the purpose of opening a resort,” he said.
When asked how long this exercise would take, Masidi said it would take some time as the Cabinet was looking at total reorganization of the function of the Sabah Parks Board of Trustees together with the need for the Cabinet to have a monitoring power to ensure that they made good decisions based on security and for good utilization of Sabah Parks lands that were becoming scarce.
“There should not be, for instance, over development of a particular island or the sort of development that can only be done on the island.
“All this need to be done. We just want to make sure that good business practice is the order of the day.
“In view of what has happened in the east coast, I think there is a need for us to re-look at their power so that it tallies with the top agenda of the state, which is security. I believe only the State Cabinet is in the position to know what can and cannot be done.
“It is not about interfering with them, it is about fine tuning their power so that it is consistent with the priority of the state, which is security,” he stressed.