RM927 million for rural Sabah projects
PUTRAJAYA: More than half or 52.50 percent of the RM3.689 billion allocation for the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development in Budget 2018 will be for projects in Sabah and Sarawak.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said Sabah and Sarawak were allocated RM927.635 million (23.98%) and RM1.103 billion (28.52%) respectively, and the balance was for 11 states in the peninsular.
"This means that each state in peninsular gets less than five per cent of the rural budget, thus denying the Opposition's claim that the government does not pay attention to Sabah and Sarawak," he said at a special press conference on Budget 2018, here yesterday.
About RM500 million of the RM934 million total allocation for rural road projects was given to Sabah and Sarawak; RM620 million for electricity supply and RM420 million for water supply.
“Some 472 are continuation projects while 178 are new projects."
Ismail Sabri said the ministry will set up a special committee to be chaired by the secretarygeneral to monitor every project implemented.
"They will receive feedback on the projects once every two to three months. We will also involve the village heads who will report on the status of the projects.”
"This way, we will be able to know of problems plaguing the projects before they become sick projects.”
The rural ministry received the second highest development budget after the Prime Minister's Department which amounted to RM3.869 billion while the budget for operation was RM5.614 billion.
The total amount allocated for the rural ministry amounted to RM9.483 billion, up by 6.66 percent compared to RM8.891 billion in Budget 2017. - Bernama