ST : CEA not up to the task

15 JAN 2011,
CEA not up to the task

I READ with concern about how the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) is treating application forms for its licence ("125 estate agents' application forms missing"; Monday).

It has managed to lose 125 application forms, tarry on 813 forms for which it has given "provisional approval", and sit on 923 forms from applicants who did not disclose past antecedents.

Each application form represents the livelihood of an individual who may be a family's sole breadwinner.

Not granting the licence or not granting it on time will have an impact on all the family members.

It makes one wonder if the CEA is up to undertaking the task it has assumed.

Was it too ambitious to set up the agency in October last year and expect things to be sorted out by the end of last year? How does the CEA explain to the households affected that it is overloaded with work and under-staffed? Was this not foreseeable? Couldn't early steps have been taken to alleviate its manpower shortage?

As for those agents with criminal track records, was the guideline properly drawn up as to who might be accepted and who will not? If an agent had committed a crime 10 years ago but has been successfully practising as an agent for the last 10 years without any complaints from the public, will he still be prohibited from practising as an agent?

Is the CEA guideline made known beforehand so that all those who are affected might know where they stand and may not incur expenses and time in taking the requisite examinations?

Dealing with each application on a case-by-case basis, with no proper guidelines or training and with inadequate staff, points to more delays.

The CEA is clearly unprepared and inadequately equipped to deal with the applications.

Chan Chow Seng