Responsibility and
Accountability of
Stakeholders in the
Construction Industry
By Dato’ Ir. Fong Tian Yong
The Board of Engineers Malaysia recently prepared a Position Paper to identify issues and
weaknesses in the construction industry supply chain in respect of building failures and fatal site
accidents and proposed recommendations with a view to minimise such mishaps.
B
uilding failures and fatal site accidents
are common in the construction industry.
Construction site accidents account for
approximately 10% of the total accidents of workers
in general. The high profile case of the Highland
Tower collapse in 1993 and a series of landslides
claiming several lives prompted authorities to beef
up the Regulations and Guidelines on Hill Sites
and Highlands Development in 2010 that have
given more emphasis to the planning aspects of
hill slopes.
However, the recent spate of building failures
either during construction, occupation or demolition
has created great public concern with wide publicity
in the press. Structural collapse which does not
incur loss of life or physical injury may not be
noticed and can be easily remedied on site, but site
accidents involving life or injuries are of concern
to the public, and they are covered in this position
paper for review and recommendation.
With the wide negative publicity of
stakeholders involved in the construction
industry, even for minor events such as falling
ceilings or leaking roofs of a public building, the
Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) decided to
form a Working Group (WG) to study the whole
supply chain of the construction industry. The
study will look into the stages of development
and the stakeholders involved, the relevant laws
and policies related to them, possible causes of
failures and recommendations. Literature reviews
will also be carried out on past cases of building
failure related to the above.
Working Group of Responsibility and
Accountability of stakeholders in
construction industry
The WG was headed by Dr Ir. Tan Yean Chin,
Chairman of Professional Practice Committee of
BEM, with representatives from the construction
industry consisting of KPKT, IEM, ACEM, CIDB,
PSDC, MBAM, DOSH, PAM, LAM and BEM.
As the scope for this subject is broad, the WG
decided to limit the scope to the following types
of failure:
Types of failure
a) Building failures of all public buildings
involving structures or services;
b) Building failures of other buildings/
structures involving life or injury to people
or an incident reported in the press;
c) Construction site accidents involving
personal injury or loss; and
d) Serviceability problems of public buildings
which create nuisance and interruption to
the users (internal piping burst, parliament
roof leaks etc).
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