Sunday, May 9, 2010

Sabah DAP wants full details on govt expenditure

By Queville To

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah state government has been asked to provide a comprehensive report of the projects that have been completed in the state. The state DAP, in making the request, said the current summary report provided by the government was insufficient.

Its vice-chairman Edward Mujie said a detailed breakdown of project costs was necessary in order to ascertain if all the government projects had actually been implemented.



Mujie, who is also DAP’s local government and housing bureau chief, was commenting on the state government’s summary report of money spent on the various infrastructure projects in Sabah. The report was presented during the state legislative assembly sitting last month.

At the sitting Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Infrastructure Development Joseph Pairin Kitingan's disclosed that as at the end of last year, Sabah had spent RM1.05 billion of allocation under the 9th Malaysia Plan.

Pairin said that some RM4.3 billion of the approved 9MP allocation had been spent on infrastructure projects and those under the Sabah Development Corridor Economic Package as well as the RM1 billion special allocation for 521 projects worth a total of RM1.68 billion.

Sabah, he said, also received RM1.99 billion for 186 road projects and RM2 billion for water supply projects under the National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) programme which must be implemented from 2010 to 2012.

Mujie said that merely disclosing the amount spent and the number of projects was too vague to ascertain if projects had actually been completed and at what cost.

He urged the state government to furnish the full details of all the projects and its respective the costs.

For example, he said, road projects should be identified as either a main road or a feeder road, the location, the actual cost, and whether it has been completed or still under construction.

He also asked what types of projects were involved in the 251 projects that were worth a total of RM1.68 billion under the Sabah Development Corridor.

The same details he said was also needed for all the 186 road projects with a total worth of RM1.99 billion and the 513 water supply projects worth RM2 billion under the NKRAs.-FMT

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