Civil Servants Association criticizes SMG over typhoon assessment

Pereira Coutinho (2nd left) pictured during the petition handing

The Macau Civil Servants Association (ATFPM) have submitted a petition yesterday to the office of the Chief Executive (CE), Chui Sai On, to launch an investigation into the operations of the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (SMG). ATFPM’s petition follows the controversy over the bureau’s failure to hoist a “signal 8” on Tuesday morning when typhoon Nida struck Macau.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines, ATFPM president José Pereira Coutinho said that “the goal is to understand how the services work, the responsibilities of each of the leaders, and why a staff member in charge of important services related with the weather forecast and the typhoons of Macau quit [those duties] to be a simple technician.”
According to Pereira Coutinho, “the three [SMG] centers have had open positions, including heads of the department of Administration and Finance” for a long time, and that “it’s been a while […] the services are operating with [internal] problems that have consequences [for society].”
Pereira Coutinho named several issues like “the appearance of signal 10 warnings [that in] reality should be 1; errors committed by the staff of the SMG due to poor infrastructure in terms of software; and when they propose changes to improve the internal working conditions, this results in retaliation against employees and […] disciplinary proceedings for the fact that they had the courage to raise questions that, in the view of the director [of the SMG], should not be raised.”
Pereira Coutinho said the SMG’s problems and operations are highly relevant, not just for SMG staff, but for the general public.
In his opinion, the situation escalated after the retirement of former SMG director António Vizeu, leaving in position a “deputy director [Leong Ka Cheng] that looks like [she] is not able to handle the situation, and the director who for a long time stopped taking responsibilities for the classification of the typhoons […]. But it seems like he also has some difficulties in this specific area.”
The journalists also questioned Coutinho about a statement made earlier yesterday by the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosário, who apologized for “communication failures” by SMG.
“Let me apologize to all citizens and residents of Macau regarding the controversy surrounding the typhoon. We need to apologize because we haven’t done enough and we haven’t done our best,” Rosário said during a visit to the Pac On area.
“We also didn’t [perform] well regarding the communication levels.”
According to Coutinho, Rosário’s apology is a positive development but still not enough.
“We want to know more than that. After all, how does the SMG work?” he asked, saying that the ATFPM only made its decision because of the “worsening of these problems.”
Nevertheless, according to the lawmaker and ATFPM head, “the mistakes of the SMG involve many other public services”; namely, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ), the services of the Public Security Police Force (PSP) and the Transport Bureau (DSAT), among others.
“During this particular case, the DSAT has issued a warning telling the motorcycle riders not to use the two bridges while T3 signal hoisted. So I ask, how can the workers go to work if they can’t use the two bridges? This is not right at all. We think that now is the right time to know what is going on inside this service and to put the right people [in charge],” said Coutinho.

Gaming association calls on CCAC to investigate

The Macau Civil Servants Association was not the only group to hand in a petition yesterday. The Gaming Employees Advance Association, meeting at the offices of the CCAC, has also called on the corruption watchdog to investigate malpractice at the weather bureau and why ‘signal 8’ was not hoisted this week.