Even so, Kuala Lumpur City Hall mayor Datuk Ab Hakim Borhan said, it would be ideal and safer for all buildings, including those belonging to the government, to obtain a CF.

"Some government offices have CF and some have none but this is usually the PWD's decision," he said when contacted yesterday.

A Malay daily had, on Saturday, quoted Ab Hakim as saying City Hall had not received any CF application for the Jalan Duta court complex and that there were many government buildings without such certification.

Asked to comment on the CF issue, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting said: "In principle and to my understanding, if the buildings belong to the federal government, their designs come under the responsibility of PWD or other government agencies, and they can practise professional self-certification as the government engineers and architects are qualified to do so.

"In Kuala Lumpur, these buildings need to obtain a development order (before they can be built). After that, they can be self-certified (by the government's engineers) who will then inform City Hall."

Ong said he had yet to receive any official report from the local authority on the court complex as it came under the jurisdiction of City Hall, which was under the Federal Territories Ministry.

Persatuan Arkitek Malaysia president Dr Tan Loke Mun said: "The law is silent on requiring a government building to obtain a CF and it would usually be vetted by the PWD architects themselves."

He said the development of government buildings was usually undertaken by PWD, which only needed to obtain a planning approval from the local authority as the project would involve the development site's surroundings.

On April 17, Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu handed over the RM270 million court complex -- the second largest in the world -- to Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim. Samy Vellu noted that the building was completed ahead of schedule.

On April 18, a crack was seen on a wall and at the end of the month, a portion of the ceiling collapsed in the room of a secretary to a civil court judge.

On May 8, the air-conditioning system broke down during a trial.

Last Wednesday, a pipe burst in the cafeteria and the problem was traced to the use of a sub-standard end-cap in the piping.

Two defective buildings in Putrajaya also made headlines: on April 11, the Immigration Department saw a massive leak which caused operations to be suspended, and on April 28, a portion of the ceiling collapsed at the Entrepreneur Development and Cooperative Ministry's multi-purpose hall on April 28, also because of a leak.