The Immigration Service Union Association of Peninsular Malaysia (KPISM) has issued a statement with regards to the power outage at the CIQ center in Johor that saw the vital gateway into the country from Singapore cloaked in darkness for over 12 hours as a national embarrassment.
The Sultan Iskandar Building was blacked out for more than 12 hours due to electrical disturbances and had completely disrupted the official function of the immigration officers at the centre. The association which feels the questions raised should be pointed at Tenega Nasional, the country’s main utility supplier said at approximately 07.45pm all zones in the building was unable to receive electricity supply due to TNB’s maintenance work but after supply was restored all zones was ok but caused disruption to the immigration system.
The association did add that TNB gave advance notice in relation to the supply disruptions and provided temporary supply through 10 power generators but the irony is that these generators where repeatedly breaking down one after another. The group insists that TNB should have a ‘back up plan, first contingency plan and second contingency plan’ to avoid such an issue occuring at a very high profile location.
Giving an example on how Singapore’s immigration authority managed its power outage incident in 2022, the group praised ICA’s efficiency in handling unforeseen incidents with a proposer SOP. Procedures that does not compromise security and inconvenience to the public was strongly put in place.
The group has aske parties to learn from the incident and draw up a Contingency Plan Risk management an that a National Gateway Risk Management Team should be established immediately to draw up an emergency plan and the actions that need to be taken in an emergency.
