KUCHING: A computer outage that happened last March 27 at Senari Terminal belonging to Kuching Port Authority (KPA) was made known to the media today.
It was reported that the outage was a force majeure incident, which means that it has something to do with a clause (or clauses) included in contracts to remove liability for natural and unavoidable catastrophes.
What actually happened was water ingress into the electrical conduit to the computer room resulting in electrical short circuiting on March 27.
In common language, it means water from outside made its way into the conduit, a situation which is sometimes referred to as “penetrating damp” because water penetrates to make its way into something (in this case the electrical conduit).
Despite the setback, KPA on March 29 implemented alternative procedures to continue its delivery services, which combines manual procedures with online application and its back-up server in Pending Terminal.
Its general manager Robert Lau said that the usual time for container delivery is about 45 minutes to one hour but as a result of the accident, there have been delays.
“The slowness is due to certain manual processes which will be improved and speeded up by online application.
“By today (April 13), the volume of delivery and receipt has returned to the normal level before the accident,” he said.
The Sarawak Forwarding Agencies Association (SFAA) and Malaysia Ship Owners’ Association (MASA) and other hauliers have been duly informed about the accident.
