Devolution of power: Technical committee meets today

THE second phase of the state’s devolution of power will be discussed in the Technical Committee meeting today.

Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem said the second phase would involve priority subject matters related to finance; oil exploration, mining and gas; and land and revenue from land.

“These issues are at the advanced stage of negotiation by the state and federal officers in the Technical Committee set up to look into these priority issues. Negotiations are on- going with the relevant parties.

“As the negotiations have yet to be finalised, the details of the meetings cannot be made public yet. However, I wish to inform this august House that the next meeting of the Technical Committee will be tomorrow (today) Dec 1,” he said in his winding- up speech yesterday.

He added that matters not on the priority list would be dealt with after issues in the priority list had been dealt with.

Adenan also spoke on the progress of the Unified Examination Certificate by the Ministry of Higher Education, which had eventually taken steps to recognise it ( UEC).

“In this respect, I have learned of late that the federal Ministry of Higher Education, following steps taken by Sarawak, will eventually recognise UEC on two conditions - the teaching of Bahasa Malaysia at SPM level and History of Malaysia instead of history of some other countries within the curriculum.

“This is being considered. But we in Sarawak will be the first to recognise UEC, so we hope the federal government will follow suit,” he said.

Adenan also touched on the 13 provisions of administrative empowerment to be delegated to the state government which were agreed upon during his meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

One of them was that Sarawak legal officers were to be authorised by the public prosecutor under the Criminal Procedure Code to conduct prosecution for offences under the State Ordinances from the stage a person was charged in the lower court until the appeal stage.

“According to the constitution, only the federal attorney general has the power to prosecute under any law. So he must delegate this power to state officers. So we have now the power to prosecute under State Ordinances by our own officers.”

In light of the recent devolution of power exercise agreed between the federal and state governments, he also said that several officers of the state Attorney- General’s Chambers had on March 1, 2016 been appointed as deputy public prosecutors.

“Since then, a total of 16 forest cases have been approved for prosecution. Ten cases have been duly charged in court with four cases successfully prosecuted and the remaining six cases are pending for trial. Another six cases are pending for charges to be filed in court.

“Following the successful prosecutions, a total amount of RM77,719.60 in compensation was ordered by the court to be paid to the state government. This amount is over and above the fine imposed by the court.”

Adenan added it was also agreed for the delegation of power to state officers to represent the Public Service Commission and the Education Service Commission in the appointment of officers to the federal civil service including teaching and medical services.

“Posts in Sarawak Immigration Department will be increased to improve the enforcement functions in the state with an increase of 100 new posts, with full deployment by the end of next month. As of today, out of 100 new posts, 99 posts have been filled. We do not have to appeal to the federal authority every time we need a new post. We can do it on our own.”

Adenan also said the ratio of Sarawak- born teachers serving in the state would be increased to 90 per cent of the total number of teachers in Sarawak by 2018.

“To ensure that this target is achieved, temporary teachers from the open market will be considered from time- totime and must obtain their Diploma in Education while teaching,” he said, adding that as of Nov 30, out of the 42,235 teachers in Sarawak, 37,921 of them are Sarawak-born teachers, which is about 89.8 per cent of the total number of teachers in Sarawak.