PETALING JAYA: Councillors and local authorities must have a sense of accountability to the voters in their municipalities, and not think that because they are appointed by the Mentri Besar, they are only answerable to him, said Public Accounts Committee chairman Datuk Shahrir Samad.

Shahrir said most councillors were members of the ruling political parties which were accountable to their voters.

"As members, leaders and representatives of the ruling party, they are answerable to their voters and residents living in the local authority. They must show and explain how the study visit is going to benefit the voters, he added.

He was commenting on the "study visit" by 14 Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) councillors and 10 department heads to Mauritius.

theSun had reported on page one on Feb 6, 2006, that the council paid in advance for the RM240,000 trip to the Indian Ocean island, as well as to Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa.

This is despite the fact that the council has not paid its dues to contractors servicing the municipality, citing "lack of funds".

The council had also recently raised its assessment rate by between 6% and 8.5%. The group led by MPS president Zainal Abidin Azim left on Jan 31, 2006, and will return on Feb 8, 2006.

Sources told theSun that the trip which cost RM10,000 per head includes five-star accommodation and leisure activities such as golf and fishing.

Cost of the fare is to be deducted from the RM500 monthly allowance of councillors and heads of departments. However, there may be requests for the council to subsidise.

"Not being accountable to the people who voted the party in and the people living in the municipality, defeats the culture of accountability that the present government administration led by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is advocating," he added.

Asked if past "learning visits" by other councils had done any good in improving their services, Shahrir said for that the councillors in question have to examine their conscience to see if whatever they did and learnt had indeed been useful to the local residents.

"Their conscience should tell them if what they had done was indeed beneficial in any way to the people they are serving," he said.