Investigation

Four waivers marked for board record do not appear in either quarter's minutes

The Negeri Sembilan Port Charges Authority granted four hardship-review waivers on Port Dickson port charges in the first half of 2026. Its own charter says that category must be tabled at the board.

By Elina Tajul · 15 July 2026 · 3 min read

Case names, entities and officials in this report are composite and illustrative. References to public bodies describe their statutory role only.

Waivers on the schedule

The Negeri Sembilan Port Charges Authority's fee schedule for Port Dickson lists eleven waivers granted against berthing and cargo-handling charges between January and June 2026, recorded in the authority's own waiver log.

Each waiver entry names an applicant, a waived amount and a stated ground for the waiver, drawn from four categories set out in the authority's charging policy: humanitarian cargo, government-to-government shipment, first-call incentive, and hardship review.

Four of the eleven waivers are recorded under the hardship review category, a ground the charging policy describes as available 'at the authority's discretion' without further criteria listed in the policy document.

The waiver log records a department code common to all eleven entries for the approving officer, with no individual name attached.

The charging policy states that the four waiver categories are reviewed annually by the authority, and that the hardship review category was added to the policy in a 2024 revision, replacing an earlier category the policy describes only as 'special consideration' without further detail on why the category was renamed.

What a waiver costs

The four hardship-review waivers total 380,000 ringgit in waived berthing and handling charges, according to the waiver log's own summary line for that category.

The charging policy's hardship review section asks for a supporting statement from the applicant describing the hardship claimed. The waiver log references a supporting statement for two of the four hardship waivers; the other two entries leave the 'supporting document' field blank.

One hardship waiver, for 140,000 ringgit, was granted to an applicant that also received a first-call incentive waiver in the same quarter, a combination the charging policy does not address directly in either category's own text.

The charging policy states a value ceiling for the other three waiver categories, each carrying a stated maximum; the hardship review category carries none.

The waiver log's summary line for the hardship review category does not break out the two waivers with a supporting statement from the two without one, so the 380,000 ringgit total cannot be attributed within the log itself to either subgroup.

Never tabled

The authority's governance charter requires any waiver granted under the hardship review category to be tabled at the authority's next board meeting for record, a requirement the charter states applies to that category alone.

Board meeting minutes for the first and second quarters of 2026, both on file, do not list any of the four hardship waivers among the tabled items recorded in either meeting's minutes.

The authority's secretariat, asked in writing whether the four waivers were tabled through a different channel, had not responded by publication time.

The charter describes tabling as part of the authority's 'standard governance process' but names no consequence for a hardship waiver that is not tabled as required.

The Q2 minutes' entry for 'waiver category performance' records the category discussed in general terms without naming individual waivers, a standing quarterly agenda item rather than a response to any specific waiver.

What the authority publishes

The authority publishes its full fee schedule and its waiver log on its public disclosure page, updated quarterly, which is how this desk obtained the documents referenced in this report.

The authority publishes board meeting minutes only on request rather than as a matter of routine; the two quarters' minutes referenced above were obtained through a written request under the authority's disclosure procedure.

The disclosure page carries no cross-reference from a waiver log entry to the board minute that, under the charter, should record it, leaving that link to be checked manually against both documents.

The authority has not stated whether it plans to table the four hardship waivers retroactively or add a cross-reference field to either document going forward.

The authority's disclosure procedure states that a written request should receive a response within fourteen working days. No response to the written request about the four hardship waivers had been received by publication time.

A hardship waiver with no ceiling and no published criteria isn't automatically a problem. Not tabling it when your own charter says it must be tabled is the part that should have a straightforward explanation, and right now it doesn't.