If you find traffic coming to a crawl a lot of times when heading over the land crossings into Johor Bahru, here's why.

The Star reported on June 18 that the congestion at Johor Bahru's Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex is caused by Malaysian officers showing up late for work and using their mobile phones during working hours.

These were some of the feedback received recently by Johor Works, Infrastructure and Transport committee chairman Mazlan Bujang.

As a result of the tardiness and inefficiencies, counters end up not opening on time.

What is going to be done

A special committee has been formed to look into the alleged disciplinary issues. This includes the possibility of having CCTV cameras at all immigration booths at the CIQ.

“We need to improve the situation at the CIQ to ensure that we can help reduce congestion," Mazlan said.

“And, there is no point in playing the blame game as many agencies operate at the CIQ.”

He said there was a lack of CCTVs and more needed to be added to urgently boost security.

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Scanners also need to be fixed

There is also a lack of scanning machines at the two CIQs -- the other at the Second Link -- resulting in bottlenecks.

The scanners also often break down, causing jams.

Johor authorities are embarking on efforts to ease traffic at the checkpoints.

Among the measures it was considering was to add more vehicle lanes during peak hours on weekends.