SHAH ALAM: The National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) has clarified that there was no issue of the agency being late in coordinating the rescue of flood victims, instead all the responder agencies had already been assigned in advance.

Director-general Datuk Dr Aminuddin Hassim said a central disaster management committee meeting was held on Sept 13, chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

"In the meeting the responder agencies were assigned their duties. So they are aware of their functions and what needs to be done, in the event of a disaster.

"There are three levels of disaster management, the first involves a locality in a district, secondly when more than two districts of a state is involved and the third involves two or three states. So everyone is aware of this," he told a press conference at Taman Sri Muda yesterday.

He said in the event of a state-level disaster, the state secretary will chair the State Disaster Management Committee and take over the mobilisation of all agencies involved, to deal with the situation.

Aminuddin also denied a media report claiming that NADMA was reluctant to get the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) involved in relief efforts because a state of emergency had not been declared.

-- BERNAMA